matapang
by jaceyrose18
Summary: basahin mo na lang ...
1. Chapter 1

Prologue: Brave New World

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

"Hey, this is Vi. Sorry I missed-"

"Shit!" Buffy exclaimed in frustration as she threw her cell phone down on her motel bed.

This was bad. She had been trying to get in touch with the redhead for a few weeks now with no luck. This wasn't like Vi at all. A few days? Maybe. A week? Well, something could've come up, and Buffy hadn't exactly made herself available lately. But two weeks? No way. Something was wrong, as in end of the world wrong.

Buffy could feel a knot of dread forming in the pit of her stomach. Come to think of it, she hadn't heard back from Kennedy, either, or any of the potentials that closed the Hellmouth. Shit.

She sat down on the bed heavily, staring at the wall as she tried to think of what she should do next. Her mind kept going back to the events that brought her to this situation, however.

It all started about a year ago when TruBlood hit the open market. Suddenly the Sunnydale days of denial were over; people knew about vampires, just like that. Hell, they made the undead creatures of the night into freakin' watercooler talk.

Then, if that wasn't surreal enough, the government decided to make it illegal to kill vampires. Talk about putting a damper on her Calling.

Understandably, Buffy and the Scoobies were in a state of disbelief at first. Illegal to kill blood-sucking fiends? And since when did vamps become lobbyists and civil rights advocates? After a lot of research and a not so friendly 'talk' with Angel, however, they made a startling discovery: there was more than one kind of vampire. In fact, there were actually several different kinds, all of which had varying supernatural abilities, weaknesses, rules, and hierarchies.

Vampires were complex; color her stunned.

And still, the fun kept coming; evidently none of these other kinds were demons. Granted, they had a giant dose of moral ambiguity and a hankering for human blood, but the bottom line was that there was no demon behind the driver's wheel. And, apparently, this lack of demon gave these vampires better impulse control. They could even play nice with humans. Mostly.

It was fair to say that this bit of information pretty much rocked Buffy's world. It also put a strain on her relationship with Angel. Did he not think the Vampire Slayer might find this interesting, even if these other vamps did avoid Hellmouths and slayers like the plague?

At least demons were still in the closet, crypt, cave, or wherever it was they called home. And they were probably going to stay there, too. It was one thing to acknowledge a human who had undergone some… changes. It was something totally different to accept a seven foot tall chaos demon, antlers and all. And demons on the whole were still bent on destruction. Not the easiest PR campaign.

She also felt mildly better when she realized that Giles had no clue about all this, either. Mostly, it was cold comfort, though, because it meant that the Council had purposefully been keeping this information from slayers and their watchers for centuries. They had to be; it was a pretty important detail to miss. And while those vamps obviously had the whole discretion is the better part of valor thing down, no one was that good at secrecy…

She could see why the Council would do it, too. It muddied the water. It wouldn't do for slayers to have to ask themselves whether the vamp before them was evil or not, or even worse, to question where to draw the line and why they were the ones that got to draw it. At the very least, it took a little shine off their moral superiority.

And now that the cat was out of the bag and the TruBlood was on the shelves, the water became downright murky. Sludge-like even, especially for her. After all, she had already accepted Angel and his animal blood diet. Was that any different than demonless vamps that drank synthetic blood from a bottle?

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, she didn't have too much time to dwell on this, because that was the same time that the proverbial shit hit the fan, namely in the guise of the First and its army of Turok-han.

As she had already known, the vamps she knew and slayed were kind of like the bastard children of the supernatural world. They weren't demon-y enough for the demons, while other vampires thought them akin to mindless animals, corrupted by the demon within. These hybrids were also not part of the big vampy reveal, seeing as they refused to kick their whole 'killing the innocents' habit.

What she didn't know, however, was that the demonic world was slowly giving way to a new order. Hybrid vampires and demons were dying out. They stuck close to the Hellmouth as their demonic safe house of sorts, but it wasn't enough. They lacked the ability to adapt, to evolve, and they drew attention to themselves with their rampage-y ways. Coupled with this was the harsh reality that the 'outed' vampires wanted to retain their tentative truce with humans and would do so by any means necessary. Needless to say, this did not inspire goodwill between the two groups.

The final battle in Sunnydale was a last hurrah of sorts. If the Turok-han succeeded in opening the Hellmouth, they could repopulate the earth and reassert themselves in the supernatural hierarchy. But if they failed, Buffy could potentially have a lot more free time on her hands, or at least only have to stop an apocalypse every other year.

Basically, it was a turf war, and she and the Scoobies were stuck smack in the middle of it, as unleashing of the Hellmouth meant badness for the world in general. Then the First started to go after potential slayers, and it became personal.

The battle in the Hellmouth against the Turok-han was so fierce, it was a wonder that any of them made it out alive. As it was, they lost too many. Only Buffy, Xander and a handful of mini-slayers made it out.

At first, the survivors clung together in their shock and grief. After a few days, however, the potentials-turned-slayers were turned back into potentials again, and that's when the fissures within the group began to form.

No one was exactly sure why it happened. They could only guess that a spell that powerful was probably also pretty unstable. Without Willow there, it simply fell apart. Or maybe it was only a temporary spell to begin with and they just didn't know it. Or maybe it was because the Scythe had been lost in the battle, buried somewhere in the Hellmouth. Or maybe it was just the PTB's cruel yet efficient way of balancing out the defeat of the First and the Turok-han. They just didn't know. What they did know was that they no longer had a reason to stick together.

Kennedy was the first to leave. Buffy couldn't blame her, even though she really, really wanted to. The outspoken girl had been a thorn in Buffy's side right from the start, but she was obviously extremely broken up about Willow; this just pushed her over the edge. Buffy had asked her to be strong, and she was. All she got in return, however, was a taste of power, of realizing her full potential, before it was taken away without so much as a warning. She left, full of bitterness and anger.

Soon after that, the other girls left, too, most heading back home to reconnect with their pre-Hellmouth lives, if that were even possible. And she let them go. It was selfish and callous of her, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

It was Xander's departure that stung. He had lost so much, and he wanted to get away from the memories, from the vampires, from her. He needed some happiness in his life to balance all the grief, and he couldn't get that with her. She remembered how his liquid, brown eye silently begged her to understand.

And she did. It stung like hell, but she understood. It wasn't like it was for forever anyway; they both knew that. He just needed time to heal, and so did she.

The only problem was that once he left, she was alone. And in a bad place. Which generally just equals more badness.

And so for the first few weeks, Buffy did more of the wallowing and less of the healing. She wasn't proud of this, but there it was. She felt herself teetering on the edge, suddenly unsure of her place in the world anymore.

She ignored Angel's attempts to reach out to her. She didn't want pity or softness. And she only kept in touch with the potentials out of a sense of guilt. Except for Vi. The spunky girl had become a genuine friend in a time when Buffy definitely wasn't looking for one. And then she disappeared, along with the others.

And just like that, Buffy's pity party was officially over with. No going quietly into that dark good night crap for her, not anymore. Some baddie was targeting potentials and she was damned well going to find out who and make them pay dearly. She was the Slayer, dammit, and she was going to go down swinging.

For the past 8 years, she had dreamt of living a Slayer-free life. Now, it was all she had left.

Buffy could feel a new fire burning in her. It wasn't totally healthy, it definitely wasn't noble, and she was frayed around the edges, but it was enough. For now anyway.

Feeling more like herself than she had in months, she began packing her bags. She was going to find out what was happening to her girls, starting with Vi.

She stopped at an internet café and quickly logged on to her e-mail account. First she sent a message to Xander, hoping that he had internet access wherever he was. Then she browsed through her inbox until she found what she was looking for: Vi's last e-mail to her, complete with her summer travel plans.

First stop: Shreveport, Louisiana.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1: Staring Contests

A/N: I just wanted to clear up any confusion: the only Sunnydale survivors are Buffy, Xander, Vi, Kennedy, and a few other potentials. That's it. Not even the Scythe made it out. It's all very tragic, I know. Just how this could ever happen will be explained… later. I'm definitely not trying to gloss over this, though. And there is still much fallout to be had. Buffy's just repressing.

Buffy walked into Fangtasia, immediately struck by how it was so not what she expected. At all. Of course, the only other experiences that came close were the times with Ford and Riley, so there was no place to go but up.

Still, she went in fully prepared to be uncomfortable and even mildly disgusted, but she just couldn't muster it. It was difficult not to be amused by the spectacle of it all.

It was touristy. Humans were objectifying the vampires. And were they merchandising?

The décor definitely left a lot to be desired, in her opinion. Red lights, red walls, red curtains, red candles... There was such a thing as too much red after all. The music was only marginally better. Spike would've loved it, though. She could almost see him now, sitting at the bar with a bottle of blood.

Spike.

God, she missed him. Somehow, against all odds, that annoying vampire had wormed his way into her heart. And then he had to go all heroic on her and save the world.

Buffy swallowed the lump in her throat while unconsciously shaking her head.

Now was not the time to think about him. She had a mission to focus on, and thinking about the blonde vampire would crack that impressive dam she was carefully building around her emotions. It would also inevitably lead to thoughts of Willow, Giles, Faith, and most of all, Dawn…

Then there would be one blubbering mess of a slayer in the middle of a vamp bar. And wouldn't that make an impressive image? She could just kiss any street cred she had goodbye, if she even had any with these vamps. As it was, she was already frustrated by her stunning lack of success earlier that day. No one could remember seeing Vi at all, not that she necessarily believed them.

No, she had to concentrate. Maybe even have a game plan.

This definitely wasn't easy. Without the Scooby gang, she was a one-Slayer operation, doing all the research, planning, recon, everything. Luckily, Giles had the foresight to take out a life insurance policy a long time ago, making her the benefactor, so at least she wasn't lacking in money. She sure as hell wasn't going to be able to collect on her homeowner's insurance. The whole damn town collapses and all the insurance company would say was that 'earthquake damage' wasn't covered.

Still, she had to admit, working alone was also kind of freeing. This thought was followed by an enormous amount of guilt, crushing even, but it didn't make it any less true. After dealing with the potentials for so long, and then having everyone turn on her, it felt nice to only have to answer to herself. She could play as fast and loose as she wanted, relying on her instincts and taking whatever risks she felt necessary. And she definitely was willing to take some.

It wasn't that she had a death wish, per se, but she was playing to win and had nothing to lose. For the first time, she really understood what Faith's life must have been like.

She scanned the crowd as unobtrusively as possible. Fangtasia was the logical place to start her search, for several reasons. The most obvious was that it was too coincidental for this not to be vamp-related.

Unfortunately, she also knew that the chances were pretty high that Vi had come here. After the Hellmouth had closed, her friend had gone home and tried to pick up where she left off. But she had seen too much and she was too damned curious. She wanted to know more about the other types of vampires, and so she planned a cross-country trip, hitting well-known vamp spots. Fangtasia was her first stop because apparently it had a fabulous marketing campaign.

Buffy warned her against it, but it was no use. Underneath that sweet exterior, that girl could be really stubborn when she wanted to be.

What was it that Vi had said? Oh yeah, that every girl needed a hobby. Smart ass.

Even though she wasn't a slayer anymore, Vi could take care of herself. Buffy knew that. The shy girl had transformed into a confident woman with a good head on her shoulders. Still, Buffy would've been happy if she had decided to take up bird-watching instead.

Buffy forced herself to take a deep breath. She was short on patience, and the clock was ticking.

Her eye briefly settled on a vampire who was sitting in an imposing-looking chair. He was purposefully situated so that he was like a king overseeing his court.

Buffy inwardly rolled her eyes. Dramatic much?

He was obviously the vamp in charge and pretty happy lording over everyone else. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she wandered over to the bar and ordered a coke. She then sat down on one of the empty stools, situating herself so that she could see as much of the club as possible.

As she took in the scene, a few vampires attempted to talk to her. She quickly brushed them off, and they hissed their displeasure, angered that a human would be so arrogant as to turn down their advances. Why was she there, after all?

Buffy didn't have time for them, though. All she had to do was take one look at them to know that they had no valuable information. They were really just looking for… what was the term? Oh yeah, 'fang bangers'. Charming.

Sighing, Buffy turned her attention back to the crowd, taking copious mental notes. It was fascinating, really. It didn't mean she was ready for group hugs or sing-a-longs, and if these vamps had anything to do with Vi's disappearance, then nothing on earth would keep them safe from her; it was just so different from what she knew.

Every now and then her gaze was inadvertently pulled over to Throne Boy. But wasn't that the point of his little furniture arrangement?

She had to admit, he was pretty damn hot, all tall and blonde and glowery. Not that she was looking for anything that came even close to lusty thoughts, let alone romantic ones. And especially not with a vampire, with or without a soul. That didn't mean she lost all ability to appreciate a hottie when she saw one, though, and Mr. Lord and Master over there was definitely one.

Just then she accidentally caught his eye. His gaze was intense and scrutinizing, like she was the most fascinating bug under his microscope. And was he frowning? She sat up straight and looked him directly in the eye, sending him a cold look. She would be damned before she let a vamp give her that look when she hadn't even had the chance to piss him off yet, powerful hottie or not.

She knew that this would draw his attention and most likely his anger, but she didn't care. Maybe it was the Slayer in her rising to the challenge, or maybe it was just her problem with authority figures. It didn't matter, because the end result was the same: one pissed off Slayer. Subtlety never was her strong suit. And besides, it wasn't like she wouldn't have to interact with the vamps here at some point. Why not start at the top?

Secretly, she thought that maybe, just maybe, she had a death wish after all.

With a shrug of dismissal to both her line of thought and the scowling vamp, she turned her focus back on the crowd. She watched some vamp dancers seduce the enthralled human onlookers for a little bit before shaking her head ruefully. So much had changed, and she was just trying to keep up.

Eric idly scanned the crowd at Fangtasia. It was a slow night, and he was bored. A few human hangers-on had attempted to speak with him, but they had been dealt with.

He was just beginning to think that he would have to make his own fun when someone caught his eye. She was human, a very attractive one.

Although she was seated, Eric could see that she had a lithe, if petite, frame. She was wearing a form-fitting green t-shirt that accentuated toned arms and golden tan. Her hair was also golden, and it cascaded down her back in long waves. She almost reminded him of a doll, except her eyes were a little too large and languid and her mouth was a little too pouty, a little too sinful, to be a child's innocent plaything.

He had seen plenty of beautiful women before, though; women who were more beautiful than she. That was not what caught his attention. No, he had just watched as several vampires made attempts to talk to her. And he saw how she effortlessly brushed them all off. She was here on a mission, it seemed, and that didn't include chatting with vampires. And she certainly wasn't acting like a star-struck tourist. Curious.

Then it happened. Her gaze fell on Eric's, sharp green eyes looking straight at him, and she didn't look away. This piqued his interest. Most humans didn't look him in the eye, at least not so steadily, whether it was because of fear or hero-worship or both. But this tiny slip of a girl stared back at him unabashedly. And did he detect a hint of scorn?

He felt a flare of annoyance. Just who did she think she was?

To add insult to injury, she looked away first, almost as a rebuff, before turning her attention back the crowd.

"Pam," Eric said in a low voice. His second in command immediately appeared next to him. He nodded his head toward the girl. "Who is that?"

The tall blonde looked to where Eric had just indicated. "I don't know. I've never seen her before. Pretty little thing," she lightly commented.

Eric just replied in an almost lazy tone, "Get her. I wish to speak to her."

Pam shot him a look of mild amusement before doing as she was told. As she made her way toward the girl, she wondered what it was about this human that had caught Eric's interest. She certainly didn't look like much.

As she drew closer to her quarry, Pam pushed this thought aside. It didn't really matter, did it? Eric had his reasons, and there would almost certainly be fun involved. A small smile curved her lips as she purposefully walked right up to the human until their bodies were almost touching. She looked down and waited expectantly.

The girl looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "Yes?" she asked politely.

"This may be your lucky night, or your worst nightmare," Pam drawled. "Your presence is requested."

"By whom?" the girl asked, wide-eyed and innocent.

Pam would've believed it, too, if she didn't see the smirk lurking beneath the surface. "Don't play games, girl," she snapped impatiently before schooling her features into one of calm indifference. "The Sheriff has made people pay dearly for far less."

The girl then had the gall to think about it, cocking her head to the side as if there were any other answer but yes. After a few beats too many, she slid off the bar stool in one fluid motion, as if she were made of water.

Looking Pam straight in the eye and with that damn smirk still lingering, the girl said dryly, "Take me to your leader."

Pam didn't know whether to rip the girl's throat out right then and there or enjoy watching Eric do it, for there was no way the Sheriff of Area 5 would tolerate the blatant disrespect emanating from this girl. She decided on the latter, seeing as he did still want to talk to her, which would be difficult if she lacked a throat.

The taller woman made a direct path back to Eric, taking long strides just to make the shorter girl walk quickly to keep up. To her chagrin, the girl seemed unfazed and managed to stay in step just fine.

"Eric," Pam said dryly, stepping aside so the girl could approach. Then she waited for the fireworks to begin.

Eric looked the girl up and down without any trace of emotion on his face. She was even more fantastic standing, though he could now see that she had a worn, tired look to her. And she was still looking him straight in the eye, completely unafraid. In fact, if he was not mistaken, she was assessing him as much as he was her, with a cold, hard look in her eye. She also was unfazed by his silence, standing there almost unnaturally still in a deceptively relaxed pose.

This girl screamed danger, real danger. And he was intrigued.

Maybe the night would not be as tedious as he had originally thought.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2: Battle of Wills

A/N: Thank you for all the reviews! I really appreciate the feedback!

Buffy and Eric stared at each other. Neither one felt compelled to speak first, even as the seconds stretched into a full minute, and then another, of total silence.

For most people, this would have been extremely uncomfortable and even downright disconcerting. Of course, most people weren't a 1000+ year old vampire and the oldest living Slayer ever.

Both Buffy and Eric recognized the situation for what it was: a battle of wills. They didn't care that they didn't know what the stakes were yet. It was a matter of principle.

Buffy had already resolved to let the King of Fangtasia speak first. He 'summoned' her after all. Why should she start making with the pleasantries? Although it was an exercise in patience, something she was not exactly known for, she refused to give in. And she had accused Vi of being stubborn.

For his part, Eric was testing her, wanting to see how she would react. He had to admit, he was impressed. The human hadn't so much as flinched. Of course, it also made him that much more wary. And maybe a little annoyed. He idly wondered how long the silence could last.

Pam could see what was going on and decided to step in. There were too many others around to bear witness to something like this, and it just didn't look good. Besides, she was getting bored.

"Isn't this sweet?" she drawled. "Love at first sight."

This earned a scowl from Buffy. Eric, on the other hand, just quirked an eyebrow at his second in command in amusement.

Pam gave him a satisfied smile. The standoff had ended and she got a dig in; she did her job.

The Sheriff of Area 5 turned his attention back to the girl. "Who are you and what is your business here?" he asked almost lazily, although it was clear that answering his question was not optional.

Normally Buffy would've relied on her dumb blonde routine, but she had already shot that cover to hell, hadn't she? And she knew she couldn't just come out with stakes ablazin', either, at least not until she got a better sense of how things worked around here. Too much was at risk, not to mention that there were too many people around.

Her goal was to find out what happened to Vi, and she would do what she had to do to accomplish that, even if that meant playing nice with Mr. High and Mighty himself.

But that didn't mean she had to roll over and play dead. And just because these vamps had TruBlood and a soul, it didn't mean they played with puppies and kittens and saved orphaned children. Besides, the Slayer in her wasn't to be denied. Neither was Buffy.

"My name is Anne and I'm a big fan of yours," she said in a placid tone. Then she added, almost as an afterthought and definitely with a good dash of cheekiness, "Sheriff."

His eyes narrowed speculatively. "Try again, Anne," he ordered, not believing for one minute that that was her name.

"I'm looking for a little vamp lovin'?" she offered blandly, going to the next plausible reason why she'd be there.

Eric knew this wasn't true from his earlier observations, and he used this bit of knowledge to his advantage, both to test her further and just to toy with her. Moving with inhuman speed, he rushed toward her and stopped only when he was mere inches from her. The blonde vampire towered over her, using his height to its fullest advantage.

"Is that so?" he asked as a slow, playful smile curled his lips. He carefully measured her reaction. Still no fear, a slight flinch, a tensing of her body. And surprise, definitely surprise. Good.

Buffy barely curbed her instinct to lash out, especially since she was startled at how fast he could move, but she did. She didn't think that he would really try anything in front of all the other patrons, and she hardly wanted to announce her Slayer status right there.

It was a gamble, but it paid off. He was just trying to intimidate her and figure her out. So she continued to stand there and gaze up at him. And up. He must have been at least 6'4".

Dear god, he's tall… and Nordic, Buffy thought. Then she frowned. And really close.

"Please, invade my personal space," she said snarkily, pursing her lips in irritation.

In the back of her mind, she was thinking that maybe, just maybe, she should play a little nicer. But it was unsettling to have him right there, and the words came out before she could stop them. Oh well. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Eric was surprised to find that for all her insolence she was certainly entertaining. Most humans would be a quivering mess on the floor by now, but not this one. She was… cranky, and it was refreshing. For now.

"But isn't this what you wanted?" Eric asked innocently, though a faint smile played around his mouth.

"And you, Mr. Sheriff and Supreme Ruler himself, are more than happy to 'help' little ol' me get my vamp on? You're just a regular Boy Scout, aren't you?" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Eric smiled, purposefully letting her catch a glimpse of his fangs to show her exactly how much he wasn't like a Boy Scout.

Buffy couldn't help but blink a little in amazement. It was the first time she had seen one of the other kinds of vamps go… well, vampy.

Huh, he stayed pretty, Buffy thought. I guess not having a demon makes a big difference in the looks department, too. No wonder Angel never told me. He had fang envy.

A tiny smile came to her lips, unbidden. She quickly smothered it, but it was too late.

This was not the reaction Eric was hoping for. In truth, he wasn't sure how he expected this human enigma to respond. Fear, disgust, anger, indignation, morbid fascination maybe… but not surprised amusement. It threw him off balance, and he did not like that. It was her little smirk that pushed him over the edge, though.

Enough was enough. It was time for answers, real ones. He was tempted to use his glamour on her, but it was too risky out there in public. The smile dropped from his face and his eyes flitted over to Chow, who surreptitiously moved closer.

"Why are you really here?" he asked, allowing a hint of menace to enter in his voice.

Buffy could sense another vampire moving behind her. Apparently, the time for fun and games was over with.

She quickly weighed her options. Whoever took Vi knew about the potentials, which meant that they knew about slayers. If the Viking King and his minions were involved, then they would presumably try to get her, too, once they knew she was looking for Vi. But then at least she'd know.

And if they weren't involved, then maybe they'd have some useful information. Even if they didn't tell her anything, at least it was something, which was a hell of a lot more than she had at the moment.

She decided to throw caution to the wind. Time was of the essence, and this would be the fastest, if not the wisest, way to see if he was friend or foe.

"I'm looking for someone," she finally relented. "A friend. She was coming here on vacation, and now suddenly she's disappeared."

The Sheriff of Area 5 studied the stranger before him. It was time to make this conversation a private one. It was clear that if he wanted any real answers from this girl, it would have to be where he could use more 'persuasive' methods. She appeared to be telling the truth, but he had to make sure. She was too… unpredictable. And disrespectful.

And if a human did go missing in his territory without his knowledge by another vampire, he wanted to know about it. Without the whole bar watching. Already there were several vampires and humans pretending not to watch what was going on while really keeping a close eye on the action.

Getting 'Anne' to leave the crowded front room of the bar for a more secluded one could be difficult, but if she was truly looking for someone here, the owner and proprietor of Fangtasia could use that to his benefit.

"And you think that a vampire had something to do with it?" he said thoughtfully in mock contemplation. "This is serious. And not something that should be discussed out here. Why don't we continue this in my office where we'll have more privacy?" He started to walk to a door in the back of the bar without even bothering to see if she agreed.

Buffy watched as he motioned to Pam and the vampire standing behind her to follow. The Slayer didn't move an inch.

"You're joking, right?" she asked incredulously. "Can we say lion, lion's den?"

He stopped and gave her an amused look. "Would you prefer to be escorted out of Fangtasia?" he said mildly.

She scowled.

He smirked. And waited.

Buffy bit her lip in indecision. She just had to open her big mouth, didn't she? She had been outmaneuvered, and she knew it. Now she only had two choices: 1) follow him and possibly walk into a trap, or 2) leave and try to get answers outside of Fangtasia. Oh yeah, and hidden option 3, which was to clock the smug Sheriff and hope for the best.

As tempting as that last one was, it probably wouldn't help her in the long run. She told herself that she could always fight her way out against all three if it came to it. As it was, she had already reserved the right to kick the Sheriff's ass regardless.

"Fine," she ground out, falling in step behind the three vampires and hoping she wasn't making the biggest mistake in her life.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3: Behind Closed Doors

A/N: A big thanks to my betas, Jason, leathon, and satsuma!

Buffy followed the vampires through a store room into a corridor. They then turned into another room. She walked through the doorway, preparing herself for whatever or whoever was on the other side. She was vaguely disappointed to find that it was just an office, complete with a desk, chairs, and piles of paperwork.

She quickly took stock of her surroundings, immediately noting that there were only two doors; the one they came in and one behind Mr. Big Shot, who was now casually leaning against the front of the desk. The blonde stood next to him while the other vampire stood behind Buffy off to the side.

The office itself was small and with all four of them there, it was a little crowded. To Buffy, however, it felt downright claustrophobic.

She tried to put as much space between her and everyone else as much as possible, but it was a difficult task in the confined space. The best she could do was stand in the center of the room. At least she had a straight path to the door, even if it was closed now. All her senses were on high alert as she felt a familiar rush of adrenaline. It felt wonderful. She felt alive.

She forced herself to give the outward appearance of calm, however. She had already all but waved a stake in front of them out in the bar with her refusal to kowtow to the Sheriff in all his fangy glory. There was no need to escalate the situation – that is, any more than she already had – just because she was itching for a good slay. Besides, she was much more vulnerable there.

And she had to admit, for all their intimidation, they really hadn't done anything besides annoy her, which sadly wasn't a crime.

Eric's perceptive eyes picked up on her strategic positioning as well as her demeanor. He said nothing, however, and just looked at her expectantly, obviously waiting for her to speak first.

At his unyielding silence, Buffy rolled her eyes. Not this again. The first time was to make a point, but again? Hadn't they moved past that? At this rate, she was going to need eye drops before the night was through.

"So, like I was saying, I- hey!" she exclaimed, for now she had a face full of vampire chest again.

Eric had waited until she became distracted with talking to take two very large steps toward her.

Buffy felt her palms twitch, but she did nothing. Although he was purposefully crowding her way beyond her comfort level once again, at the end of the day, she wanted information from him. They both knew it. He was really pushing his luck, though.

"Is this a habit of yours? Cuz I gotta say, it's not one of your more endearing qualities," she said as coolly as she could.

He ignored this and looked down at her. He used his proximity to push his glamour onto her, his blue eyes gazing into her green ones.

"Now tell me. What are you doing here?" he asked intently with an almost seductive tone to his voice.

"Obviously not soaking up the Southern hospitality," she retorted almost immediately.

So much for calm. It wasn't her fault, though; she tried. Apparently he just brought it out of her. Really, he had a gift. And what was with the come hither look in those gorgeous blue eyes of his anyway?

Eric was shocked; he quickly glanced at Pam, who also looked surprised.

Buffy saw this and quickly deduced what had happened. It seemed as though Blondie didn't have all the power over her he thought he did. "What, were you trying to thrall me? Because I am so over that. Two years, thrall-free," she smirked.

Up until that very moment, Buffy hadn't been 100% positive she would be able to resist a vamp's glamour, especially one as powerful as he obviously was. Sure, she had managed to overcome both the Master's and Dracula's powers of hypnosis, but that was only after she had fallen under it.

When she drank Dracula's blood and understood her 'true' nature, however, she felt… different, like a part of her had finally woken up. She could feel the change, and she was grateful for it, once she got beyond the ick factor. She had delved into the essence of the Slayer and came out stronger for it.

Because her situation was so unique, she knew that she was probably one of the few slayers, if not the only, who was able to build up her thrall 'immunity'. Consequently, she knew that resisting a glamour wouldn't necessarily mark her as a slayer. It would, however, definitely raise the alarm. She braced herself for the fallout.

Eric studied her closely. He didn't know what to make of this entire situation. He didn't know what to make ofher. There weren't many humans who could resist a vampire's glamour. In fact, Sookie was the only one that came to mind. Just who was this girl? Could she also be a mind reader?

He had gone into his office with every intention of using his glamour and perhaps a little force to make the girl talk. But now… His mind raced with the possibilities.

"My apologies," he said smoothly, stepping back to lean against the desk again. "So tell me about this friend of yours, the one you are willing to… throw yourself to the lions for."

Buffy narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Why was he Mr. Helpful all of a sudden? Shouldn't he be angry that his glamour didn't work? Maybe he had something to do with Vi's disappearance after all and was treading carefully. Then again, he was like a broken record asking her why she was there, which indicated that he had no clue.

"Do you care this much about all missing humans?" Buffy asked, blithely ignoring his request.

"No," he replied bluntly. "But I care when someone implies that it is because of vampires."

Pam nodded. "It's bad for business," she added.

Buffy was momentarily taken aback, not so much by the blonde vampire's complete lack of concern for missing people but by her candidness. She meant it. And in some weird, twisted way, Buffy appreciated her honesty. It was probably one of the few completely true things that had been said all night. Still, she had an image to protect. And a moral stance.

"Yeah, because that's what's most important here," she said sarcastically.

The blonde vampire just smiled serenely.

Buffy knew she wasn't going to win this argument, so she moved on. It was time to get down to business anyway.

"My friend came here, and I want to know if anyone's seen her or knows what happened to her," she said frankly. She pulled a photo out of her back pocket. "Here, I've got a photo. She's the redhead."

Buffy resolutely avoided looking at it. She had already committed every detail to memory anyway. Vi and Dawn were laughing at some prank they pulled on Xander.

She was lucky she had it at all. Andrew had taken a bunch of pictures while they were training the potentials, insisting that there needed to be a record of the momentous event for posterity. He had e-mailed the best ones to her in hopes that the large file sizes would encourage her to look at them and give them her slayer sanction before her inbox imploded.

She never did manage to look at them; there was never enough time for something as seemingly superfluous as that. After all, they were focusing on defeating the First; it hardly seemed the time for scrapbooking. Now she couldn't have been happier that she didn't; it was all she had left in the way of memories. She just wished she had showed the tiniest bit more patience with Andrew when he was taking them. He did have his moments, and this definitely rated up there.

This photo in particular was one of her favorites. There was nothing slayer-related in it, just two teenage girls acting like teenage girls. It was nice to pretend.

Eric studied her for a moment before taking the photo from her. To Buffy's surprise, he really looked at it, and not just to humor her. Then he gave it to Pam, who just gave it a cursory glance before handing it back to Buffy.

Buffy carefully measured their reactions. She didn't expect them to start jumping up and down in excitement, but she had hoped for something, whether it was a flicker of recognition, suspicion, or, hell, even satisfaction. To her disappointment, though, they showed no reaction whatsoever. That would've been too easy and she couldn't have that, could she?

"Well?" Buffy asked with as much patience as she could muster. "Do you remember her?"

Eric shrugged. "No. Pam?"

Pam pursed her lips in thought. "No, but then again, all you humans tend to blur after awhile," she said.

And again with the brutal honesty. If Buffy didn't know any better, she would've sworn this vampire was starting to grow on her.

"What about you?" she asked the vampire behind her. She turned and held out the photo to him. She purposefully made it so he had to walk to her to see it, pulling him away from the door.

He looked at the photo. "No, sorry," he grunted.

Buffy carefully tucked the photo back into her pocket and turned to the Sheriff and his gal pal. What she really wanted to ask was whether any hybrid vamps lurked around Shreveport. Their existence wasn't exactly common knowledge, however, so her mention of them would only raise difficult questions. She would have to find that part out on her own.

It was time to cut her losses and run, for tonight anyway. She had done what she needed to do. They knew she was looking for Vi. If they did have something to do with her friend's disappearance, she would know soon enough. And they had given her plenty to think about otherwise.

"Well, er, thanks. I'll just get out of your way then and leave you to your morally ambiguous ways," she said as she backed up to the door. At Eric's voice, however, she stopped.

"Wait. We haven't discussed what you're going to do for me," Eric said with a small smile. He had let her take control of the conversation for awhile, but now it was his turn. And he had her right where he wanted her.

Buffy was so surprised by this, all she could manage was a 'Huh?' She inwardly winced at her stunning comeback.

"I helped you, but we haven't discussed what you're going to do for me in repayment," he repeated.

"You've got to be kidding," Buffy said in disbelief. "You looked at a photo and gave me no useful information whatsoever."

He shook his head. "No, I let you question me, I let you question my staff, and I ignored your insinuations that someone here had something to do with this. You owe me," he insisted.

She frowned, not liking where this conversation was headed one bit. "Okay, I'm outta here," she announced. "Have fun with those delusions of yours."

She whirled around, not caring anymore if she put her back to them. In fact, part of her wanted them to attack. She had walked into a trap, just not the kind she was expecting. She got as far as yanking the door open before he called out to her.

"You owe me, and if you don't figure out a way to pay me back, then I can make finding your friend extremely difficult for you, if not impossible. And not just here in Fangtasia." He kept his tone light, but the threat couldn't have been clearer.

For the first time since she walked into his stupid bar, Buffy felt rage boiling within her. No annoyance, no irritation, just tear your head off rage. It was one thing not to be useful; but to get in her way when her friend's life was at stake? Not in this lifetime. She turned around and fixed him with a blazing look, her eyes becoming pools of green fire.

"Let me make myself clear," she said in a low, dangerous voice. "If I find out you had something to do with this, or if you get in my way with finding out who did, I will personally tear this whole goddamn building down… with you in it."

All the vampires in the room were astonished. She was threatening them, and for some reason they believed she would follow through on her threat. They finally got a glimpse of who she really was, and it was a real eye opener. She radiated sheer power.

Eric was fascinated. Now more than ever he wanted to know who she was. He wasn't afraid, either; he had lived far too long for that. Besides, at that moment, she was a Valkyrie incarnate.

"I want to know. Who are you?" he asked forcefully. "What are you?"

Buffy froze, his words inadvertently stirring a distant memory. An image of Tara flashed through her mind as words from a dream came back to her.

You think you know, what you are, what's to come. You haven't even begun.*

She had been so sure of herself then, so sure of her place in the world. She had scoffed at the prophetic words, thinking that they only referred to her lack of knowledge about the Slayer inside her. Now the words seemed to mock her.

Who was she? What was she? And most frightening of all, who would she be if she failed to save Vi and the other girls?

"I don't know," she said, almost in a whisper. The walls were closing in on her. She needed to get out of there as quickly as possible.

Eric was not ready for her to go yet, however. He grabbed her arm to prevent her from leaving. Acting on pure instinct, Buffy lashed out with her other hand, connecting solidly with his jaw.

The next thing Eric knew, he was flying through the air. He crashed into Pam, who was already moving toward them, and they landed on the floor in a heap. Buffy dodged under Chow's reaching arm, and then she got the hell out of Dodge.

With a snarl, Eric jumped to his feet. But the human was gone. So was Chow, presumably chasing after the girl.

Eric rubbed his sore jaw as he waited for Chow to return. No normal human could hit with such power, especially not a tiny girl. It could mean only one thing.

She was the Slayer. It all made sense now. And it changed everything.

Pam stood up with a slightly disgruntled look. "What was that?" she asked.

"A Slayer," he replied tersely.

Pam's eyes widened in shock. She had assumed that she was a junkie, gaining her abnormal strength from drinking vampire's blood. But a Slayer? That little human was the Slayer?

Some vampires even doubted she existed, including many in Fangtasia. They thought the Slayer was just a story told to newly made vampires to impress upon them the importance of discretion. And the girl before them was not at all like the stories she had heard.

Slayers were… feral. They went after the mongrel vampires for a reason. They didn't talk with vampires, they didn't reason with them, and they definitely didn't come into a vampire's territory to ask them questions about a missing human. It was probably why Eric hadn't realized who she was sooner. Pam wasn't even sure if he had ever faced one before.

Chow came back and shook his head. She had escaped.

"Make some discreet inquiries about the Slayer, Pam. I want everything; her name, her last known location, her current location, her favorite color, everything," Eric ordered. He turned to Chow. "Chow, come with me. We have some matters to discuss." 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4: Civic Duty

A/N: A big thanks to my betas, Jason, leathon, murg, SariLane, and satsuma!  
A/N2: Story classification changed. It now officially contains violence.

Buffy escaped from Fangtasia as fast as she could. For one of the few times in her life, being short actually came in handy. She could weave in and out of the bar crowd without drawing too much attention to herself. And if someone got a little jostled in her rush, she disappeared amid the other patrons before they could even turn around.

Once she got outside, she ran for half a dozen blocks. After she was certain that no one had followed her, she ducked into a dark alley and leaned against the brick wall.

"What the hell was that?" she said aloud, trying to process what had just happened.

Did she really just manage to assault the local vamp authority while simultaneously giving a major hint about her Slayer status? All because of a question?

And what are you going to do the next time a vamp has the name Dawn, or red hair, or a British accent? Ask for a tissue and a time out? Or maybe just go on a rampage and take out an entire bar? she harshly berated herself.

For all her years as the Slayer, she was really giving it a poor showing.

"Stupid vampire with his blackmail and identity crisis questions," she grumbled. "Couldn't he have just tried to kill me instead?"

She needed to figure out what to do next. After her oh so subtle visit to Fangtasia, her time in Shreveport could be cut short.

Going back to her motel wasn't an option, seeing as vamps could enter without an invite. If Mr. You-Owe-Me was looking for her, the last place she wanted to be was in her small, enclosed room.

No, she would spend the rest of the night patrolling. It wasn't as if she was going to get any sleep anyway, and she was wound too tightly to do anything else. This was the perfect outlet. Who needed self-pity when you could just punch something? Besides, she needed to see what the real nightlife here was like.

To Buffy's complete disappointment, there wasn't a vampire to be found – hybrid or otherwise – after searching all night. Now it was almost daybreak.

With the other vampires' strong presence in town, she thought that her kind of vamps might lay low. But they had to feed sometime, didn't they? Maybe it was just a slow night. Or maybe they had something bigger to preoccupy themselves. But they had to be there.

Hybrid vamps were still the most likely explanation behind the potentials' disappearance. It was their uprising at the Hellmouth that was ruined by Buffy and the others, after all. But why? Was it strictly for revenge? Then why didn't they come after her? It wasn't as if she went to any great lengths to hide or protect herself after Sunnydale collapsed.

This really bothered her, and she wanted answers. She wasn't going to get them tonight, though. It was frustrating; she had never had a problem finding vamps before.

How sad is it that vamps are the one constant in my life and even they're letting me down? she thought with a scowl.

With a sigh, she started to head back to her motel room. All in all, the night was disappointingly anticlimactic.

Then she felt it; her senses tingled. There was a vampire nearby.

She hadn't realized she actually missed slaying until she felt the rush of excitement in Fangtasia earlier. Now she practically skipped down the street in anticipation.

She slowed down as she neared a small park. The vamp was definitely in there somewhere. Moving swiftly through a thick stand of trees, she pulled out a stake, ready for some action. She could hear sounds of fighting as she drew closer. Good, she wasn't too late.

She burst out of the trees, quickly assessing the situation as she ran toward the struggle. There were three people, or rather one female vamp and two male humans. Somehow, the guys had managed to subdue the vamp and had her pinned the ground, although one of her arms was free and doing plenty of damage. Buffy watched as the vamp threw one of the guys across the clearing. He landed with a thud in front of a shiny black pickup truck that was partially hidden by the trees. The vampire then snaked her free hand around the other guy's throat and began to squeeze.

Buffy sprang into action. She raced over and broke the vamp's grip on the guy before pushing him out of harm's way. That was when she saw what was restraining the vampire; several nails were embedded in her wrist, pinning her to a sheet of plywood that lay underneath her. With a quick glance, Buffy saw that the vamp's ankles were held down in the same fashion.

Wow, Buffy thought. Points for quick thinking. And ew.

Then she noticed the vamp's game face, or lack thereof. This wasn't a hybrid vamp. This was one that was illegal to stake. Still, the vamp had tried to kill these people. She raised her stake, ready to plunge down.

"Wait!" one of the guys shouted.

This surprised Buffy so much that she actually listened, her hand frozen mid-stake. The vampire struggled underneath her, but Buffy held her firmly in place as she turned to the visibly battered guys with a questioning look.

"Wait for what?" she asked in confusion.

Instead of answering, they both rushed toward her, the taller one grabbing a black duffle bag from the bed of the truck on his way. As they approached, she noticed that they were young, maybe just a little older than her. They were also big, obviously clocking some serious time at the gym.

The taller of the two – whom she now thought of as Muscles #1 – knelt by her side and quickly emptied out the contents of the bag, dumping a syringe, several lengths of rubber tubing, and five or six empty blood bags onto the ground.

"Wow, you Red Cross workers are really dedicated," she said slowly, unsure of what to make of it.

"Why don't you just move along, darlin'? We can take it from here," Muscles #1 said, an insincere smile plastered on his face. He had a nice Southern drawl; it was too bad he was such a mean-looking bastard. "This here ain't none of your business."

Buffy frowned. She opened her mouth to object and to remind them that they would both be dinner right now if she hadn't come along when she suddenly found herself at the wrong end of a fist. The vamp had taken advantage of the fact that Buffy was distracted and dislodged her from her position with a blow to the head.

Buffy quickly rolled to her feet, ready to pounce, but the two guys had already moved into her spot. She saw Muscles #2 pick up a nail gun that must have been dropped in the struggle and quickly pump several nails into the vampire's free hand, completely pinning her down. The sound of sizzling skin and the accompanying scream of agony were almost obscene in the serene pre-dawn hours.

This wasn't right.

The smell of burning flesh permeated the air. Buffy peered down at the vampire's wrist, studying the nails closely. They were much shinier than the gray nails that she had seen Xander often use, and they were obviously having an unusual effect on the vamp.

Silver, maybe. Different vamps, different weaknesses, she noted. Wait, who walks around with silver nails?

She could rationalize away why someone would have a nail gun and plywood in their truck. Maybe they were construction workers. But silver nails? And now that she had a moment to think about it, how did they get the vamp onto the plywood in the first place?

This definitely wasn't right. What the hell was going on?

"Uh, why are you taking her blood? Is this your idea of poetic justice or something?" she asked skeptically.

"Yeah, yeah, that's right," the shorter one – Muscles #2 – said hastily. "And this ain't something a pretty little thing like you should be watching."

Buffy frowned but said nothing; she was too busy studying them as they began to draw the vampire's blood. They were too well-prepared and moving with practiced efficiency. They knew what they were doing; what's more, they had probably done this before.

The picture suddenly became clear. The vampire hadn't tried to kill them. If she had truly made the first move, they'd already be dead. These two creeps just wanted her blood for some reason. And, judging by the number of blood bags they had, they were ready to drain the vampire dry for it. Buffy began to feel nauseous.

"But why are you bagging it then?" she pressed further.

The two men exchanged glances. She was asking too many questions. Before they could decide what to do, the vampire decided to speak up.

"Because, you idiot, vampire's blood fetches a high price on the black market," she said, a little more irritably than someone in her position should be, at least in Buffy's opinion. "Now either shut up and let me die in silence or do me a favor and stake me now."

"Shut up, bitch!" Muscles #2 roared, shooting a silver nail into the vampire's gut out of spite.

Both men grinned as the vampire screamed in pain. The scent of burning flesh filled the air once again. Buffy felt her anger rise as she digested the vamp's words and the men's smiles.

Vampire blood on the black market? How the hell did she not know about this? The whole First problem really had given her tunnel vision. Then she vaguely remembered Willow mentioning rumors about the power vampires' blood gave to humans, supposedly like a drug. They hadn't believed it at the time, chalking it up to humans trying to Anne Rice the vampires, romanticizing and idolizing them.

She did feel different after she drank Dracula's blood. She'd thought it was because she was the Slayer or maybe because he was Dracula. But now…

Now was not the time to dwell on that. She needed to figure out what she was going to do and fast, though deep in her heart she knew the answer. These two slimeballs wanted the vamp's blood to sell, and in the meantime they were getting off on torturing her.

This was wrong. This whole situation was wrong on so many levels.

The two men didn't like the way she reacted to the vampire's words, and so after another significant look, they began to advance toward her menacingly.

She just glared at Muscles #1 and #2, pissed at what they were doing and at the situation in general. "I can't let you do this," she said frankly as she tucked away her stake.

"Excuse me?" Muscles #2 asked, not quite able to believe his ears.

Buffy scowled at him. "You're going to make me say this out loud, aren't you? I. Am. Saving. The. Vampire," she ground out. Oh, the irony.

Three sets of eyes went wide with disbelief. Then Muscles #1 started laughing.

"And who the hell are you to stop us, darlin'?" he asked with a nasty grin. He pulled out a knife and waved it around in a threatening gesture.

Muscles #2 quickly followed in suit. Apparently they had either forgotten or were in some serious denial that she was the one to hold the vampire down without any silver.

Buffy held back a snort of amusement. Knives? Please. I am so gonna enjoy kicking Dumb and Dumber's asses.

"I'm-" She stopped short. She was about to say that she was the Slayer but realized that the title would have absolutely no significance to them.

"I'm, uh, a concerned citizen?" she finished lamely.

"I bet she's a fang-banger," Muscles #2 scowled. Apparently he had a low opinion of them.

Buffy snorted in amusement. "Just because I don't want you to bleed a vampire to death for money, I'm automatically screwing them? Do I sense inadequacy issues here?" she said in a mocking tone.

Muscles #2 didn't like this. He lunged for her, knife slashing toward her chest. She kicked the knife out of his hand and followed up with a right hook, using only a quarter of her Slayer strength. The poor guy must've had a glass jaw or something, because he crumpled to the ground like a rag doll. No wonder he was so touchy.

Muscles #1 was pissed. He was a better fighter, too, showing off some boxing skills. He threw a few solid jabs and uppercuts, which she dodged or blocked. He even tried to block her kick, 'try' being the operative word. He was just a human, after all.

Buffy wanted information from him, though, so she didn't knock him out like she had his friend. She let him recover and waited until he lunged again with the knife. She easily sidestepped his attempt, grabbing his arm and twisting it painfully behind his back.

"Ow!" he yelped. "Get off me, bitch!"

"What? No more 'darlin'?" she grinned before twisting his arm a little harder.

He muttered a string of expletives as he futilely tried to break her iron grip.

"So tell me. How did two losers like you ever manage to snag a vamp without becoming her late-night snack?" she asked in a conversational tone.

When he didn't respond, she twisted again. She could practically hear his bones straining under the pressure.

"Alright, alright!" he yelled. "I pretended to be a fang-banger, and I picked her up at a bar and took her here. When she was… distracted, we jumped her."

"Why her?" Buffy asked in a quiet voice, masking the rage boiling beneath the surface.

He gave a small laugh, misunderstanding her calmness. "Because she's a Mainstreamer. Less chance of revenge. Ow!" he howled in pain as she twisted his arm again. "Why'd you go and do that? I answered your question!"

"Because you're an asshole," she replied evenly.

She had heard everything she needed. While she had never heard the word 'Mainstreamer' before, she could guess what it meant. It just further reaffirmed her belief that she was doing the right thing, which was good because this was new territory for her.

She was tempted to break Muscles #1's arm but settled for sweeping his feet from under him and delivering a roundhouse to his head as he struggled to stand, rendering him unconscious. She stared at him for a moment in disgust before giving him one more kick in the ribs. No sainthood for Buffy today.

As her anger subsided, Buffy remembered the reason why she had beat the crap out those two lowlifes in the first place. She hurried over to the vampire and knelt by her side, closely examining the wounds. Buffy winced sympathetically; the silver nails were deeply embedded into the vamp's flesh, but they had to come out.

"I'm sorry. There's no easy way to do this," she said apologetically, right before she ripped the vampire's hand from the plywood in one smooth motion.

The vampire's entire body shuddered with pain and a small groan escaped past her tightly drawn mouth. Buffy quietly moved to her other side and looked on in askance. At the vampire's nod, she wrenched the other hand free and then her legs.

The instant she was free, the vampire rolled away from Buffy and slowly got to her feet. The nail in her gut wasn't long enough to break through to the plywood, but it was buried deep inside, making any kind of movement extremely painful. Buffy was going to let the vamp take care of that one herself, though. Helping hands went only so far.

The vampire glared at Buffy, obviously wary of this tiny girl who had held her down and then soundly thrashed two large men without so much as breaking a sweat. Then she made a movement toward the men.

Buffy raised her eyebrow and blocked her way, drawing out her stake again. "The sun will be up soon," she said casually. "You probably should go somewhere safe and get that last nail out."

The vampire studied her for a moment before turning away and leaving without saying a word.

"You're welcome!" Buffy huffed as she watched the vampire's retreating figure. Then she looked down at the two unconscious men at her feet, trying to make sense of this night.

She was in bizarro world, plain and simple. Maybe she didn't know who she was, but the rest of the world didn't know, either. And as this little encounter proved, she would have to redefine herself, for better or for worse. Standing still just wasn't an option. She bet the Slayer's Handbook didn't have any guidance for this.

All the remaining self-pity she had been feeling that night evaporated with the absurdity of the situation. The laughter bubbled out of her before she could stop it. It overflowed until she was sitting on the grass with tears running down her face and her sides ached. She had to laugh. It was either that, or cry.

Once she had finally controlled her laughter, she stood to leave. She needed to get some sleep before she started her search again. The sun was almost up, so she just left the men there in the park, hogtied in the bed of their truck with all the incriminating evidence and a note detailing their escapades next to them. Before she left, however, she broke the bag of blood, watching the dark red liquid seep into the grass. For good measure, she broke their little nail gun into pieces.

By the time she got back to her room, she felt considerably lighter than she had at the start of the night. She was going to find Vi, get to the bottom of this, and then get really drunk, though maybe not in that order.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5: Caffeine Fix

+++

Unbearable heat?

Check.

Fruitless searching?

Check.

Sweaty, cranky Buffy?

Double check.

Buffy had started the day with a bounce in her step, but the late summer Louisiana humidity quickly had her practically dragging herself down the streets of Shreveport. It never ceased to amaze her that she could kick demon ass without breaking a sweat, but something as natural as humidity could turn her into a freakin' Slip N' Slide. As if on cue, she felt yet another bead of sweat trickling down her back. This was so not the look she was going for.

To add insult to injury, she had a big, fat nothing to show for her efforts for the second day in a row. Soon she would have to consider the possibility that Vi was either never there or that she had left for another town before she disappeared. Then it would be 'good bye haystack, hello even bigger haystack'. Although, on the bright side, it meant that she wouldn't have to deal with Fangtasia's very own Ken and Barbie anymore.

Buffy sighed. As happy as that would make her, she wasn't ready to give up on Shreveport yet. She just wished there was an easier way to get this legwork done. Hell, she would have tea and cookies in Fangtasia if it meant she could have access to all the occupancy records in town. And why did walking from place to place seem like such a good idea?

At that moment, she happened to catch sight of a coffee shop out of the corner of her eye. An air-conditioned one. She was tempted to go in, but Shreveport was a huge city and she still had a lot of ground to cover. Then she noticed that it also had an internet café inside.

Hmm… I should check my e-mail, just in case, she thought hesitantly. And considering that I probably lost half my water weight on the streets of Shreveport, a drink wouldn't be a bad idea. Ooh, maybe I could even get an iced mochaccino.

She gave a shiver of anticipation at the thought of all that sugar and caffeine rolled into one cold drink.

Fifteen minutes later, she managed to snag an open computer with a large iced mochaccino with two extra shots of espresso in hand. She quickly logged into her e-mail account and reached for her drink as she waited for her inbox to load. Her hand froze midway, however, as she stared at the screen in astonishment.

Her inbox had popped up, and there at the top was an e-mail from Xander. Drink forgotten, she held her breath as she clicked to open it. She hadn't heard from him since he left after the collapse of Sunnydale. He was obviously replying to the SOS e-mail she sent just before she left for Shreveport.

Hey Buff,

All the potentials are missing? Yep, that sure sounds like our kind of trouble. Who says only the really fun parties happen on the Hellmouth? I'm out of the country, but I'm heading to NY to check the sitch with Kennedy. I'll be in touch.

I've missed you.

Love,  
X

PS. I've got a surprise for you, too. Oh, but the good kind, not a 'this will bring the apocalypse' kind. I don't think.

Buffy read and reread the message several times. Xander was going to look into Kennedy's disappearance. He wasn't going to come to Shreveport. Wait. He was 'out of the country'? And he had a surprise? What was with the cryptic?

She took a deep breath. This was good. The longer she stayed in Shreveport, the colder the trail got everywhere else. And until they knew who was behind this, they needed to gather as much information as they could.

She quickly wrote him back, giving him a brief rundown of her time Shreveport, Twilight Zone experience and all. It felt nice to have some sort of connection with Xander again, even if things weren't totally the same between them.

Since she was already sitting at the computer, Buffy decided to reread Vi's e-mail to see if there were any clues she missed. Nope, just unrestrained curiosity about these new kinds of vampires and the hype surrounding them…

"Oh, Vi, you didn't," Buffy whispered, her eyes wide with horror.

Vi was curious about everything surrounding these new vampires, including humans' fascination with them. And what better way to see how the other half lived than at a vamp-themed motel, complete with complimentary fake fangs on the pillow?

It was just a hunch, but it felt right. She had been searching the places near the bar and working outward, and she had found nothing except for places like the Love Bites Motel. She didn't even bother going in to these places, seeing as they catered towards 'casual encounters' between humans and vamps and only charged by the hour.

So where did the tourists stay, the ones that came to the bar in loud, flashy tour groups?

Buffy did a quick internet search of all the area hotels catering to the fang-happy tourists. There was a handful or so, all a fair distance from Fangtasia. It made sense, once she stopped to think about it. From what she could tell last night in the bar, most tourists wanted a vanilla experience, a very safe and controlled walk on the wild side. And that did not include going to sleep each night knowing that a bar full of hungry and awake vampires was just a few blocks away. And although Vi was curious, she was also smart. Sticking with large groups of tourists was a pretty safe bet.

She jotted down all the names and addresses of the motels, unable to keep from snickering as she did so. Everything was 'fang' this and 'blood' that. Her personal favorite was Fangri La.

How the owners weren't killed on the spot for such ridiculous names, she wasn't sure. Then again, the motels brought in the tourists, so the overlord of Fangtasia probably protected them.

Buffy suddenly broke out into a wide grin. "I decked the Godfather," she said aloud, not caring at the stares she was receiving. How cool was that?

She quickly downed her mochaccino and headed toward the door. Maybe today wasn't such a bad day, after all.

The sign 'Hotel Transylvania' stood out against the darkening sky. It was obviously going for the dark and vampy look with the castle and bats in the background, but neon pink lighting could only be so foreboding.

Buffy entered the main door, photo in hand, and looked around. The décor wasn't half bad for a budget motel trying to imitate Dracula's castle. Sure, the stone walls were fake, the candelabra were obviously plastic, and the prints of the Vlad the Impaler everywhere were a bit much…

Okay, so it redefined the word 'tacky', but she was trying not to be judgmental. She needed their help, and insulting their sense of style wasn't the way to get it. At least this place wasn't trying to make vampires out to be Zen-like beings on the path to Enlightenment like Fangri La did.

The lobby was empty, so Buffy made a beeline to the front desk, which of course was shaped like a coffin. The woman behind the counter looked a lot like Elvira, right down (or should she say up?) to the excessive cleavage. As Buffy reached the woman, she saw that her name tag actually said 'Elvira'. Oh boy.

Luckily, Buffy was feeling more than a little hyped from the mochaccino. This meant that bubbly Buffy came out, holding snarky Buffy in a firm yet chipper chokehold.

"Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania," the woman greeted in a low, affected voice.

"Hi, I-" Buffy stopped short, as she recognized the play on words with the Eagles' song.

Elvira just gave her a small smile. Buffy could've sworn she saw the woman's tongue lodged firmly in cheek. Suddenly, she saw the motel's interior design in a whole new light. Elvira, too.

"How may I be of service to you?" Elvira asked. "Do you need a room for the night? Or perhaps you would like to join one of our tours?"

Buffy shook her head politely. "No, thank you. My name's Anne, and I wanted to ask you about my friend," she explained as she held out the photo.

The woman looked at the picture. Her kohl-rimmed eyes widened in surprise and she immediately dropped the Mistress of Dark routine. "Oh! Violet Davies!" she exclaimed in what was her natural, higher-pitched voice.

Buffy had to restrain herself from climbing over the counter and hugging the woman. As it was, she was two seconds away from declaring that her first born would be named Elvira. Before she could act on either impulse, however, the woman of the hour continued to talk.

"You haven't found her yet? I thought for sure that you would've by now," she said sadly. "It looks less likely that she just continued on her road trip, doesn't it? Violet's uncle must be devastated!"

Alarm bells started ringing in Buffy's head. Uncle?

Someone else was looking for Vi, too, and it definitely wasn't her uncle, if she even had one. Vi was identified as a Potential by the Council long before the final showdown in Sunnydale. She had been under the care of her Watcher and had little ties to her family. Who then would be asking about a missing Potential at a vamp-themed motel right when all the other Potentials went missing?

Someone from the Watcher's Council was in Shreveport. They had to be.

When the First destroyed Council headquarters and went after Watchers with a vengeance, there was the possibility that it didn't get all of them. And if any did survive, it would make sense that they would regroup and try to keep tabs on the Potentials once again. It was their job, their raison d'être, even.

"Uh, yeah, he's… all stricken with the grief," she managed to get out as she tried to determine the best way to handle this.

Historically speaking, she sucked at cover stories, which was funny considering how often she had to have one. Between the caffeine and the excitement of finally having a solid lead, however, her mind was working overtime and all her instincts were sharp. Seriously, she felt like a squirrel on speed. And at Elvira's look of compassion, she knew that she could play on the woman's sympathy without raising too much suspicion.

"Actually, he hasn't been too big on the details, being upset at all. But I need to know what happened. I can't stand not knowing," she said emphatically.

That last part was true, and she hoped it came across. She held her breath as she silently willed the woman to believe her.

To Buffy's immense relief, Elvira nodded in understanding. "I can certainly understand that. I would probably do the same thing. I'm just sorry I don't have much to tell you," she said regretfully. "Violet came here almost two weeks ago and checked in for a full two weeks. She would stop by to chat before she went out each day, but then I didn't see her again after the first week. I was worried at first, but then housekeeping said that she had cleared out."

"'Cleared out'? You mean, without checking out?" Buffy asked, frowning slightly when the woman nodded.

"It happens more than you'd think, especially with that damned Fellowship of the Sun harassing our guests as they go out for the night," Elvira explained with a scowl.

Fellowship of the Sun? She would have to look into that. It sounded familiar, but all she could think of was Andrew and his action figures. Buffy was going to go out on a limb and guess that this fellowship had nothing to do with hobbits.

"Do you think Vi could've run into problems with them? Or with anyone else?" Buffy hedged.

What she really wanted to ask was whether any vamps were seen lurking about. It was a delicate question to ask someone who worked in a business that thrived on vampires not killing humans. Elvira was one sharp cookie, though.

"You don't think this has something to do with vampires, do you? Nothing has ever happened to one of our guests before!" the woman said, aghast, looking around to make sure no other guests had come into the lobby. "What do the police think? I'm surprised they haven't come by yet."

Oh right, most sane people would call the police. Only people with something to hide wouldn't, like her and Vi's mystery uncle/potential Watcher.

"Yeah, they didn't take us seriously after we told them what had happened here. They think Vi just took off, but I know she didn't," she replied earnestly. She looked at the woman beseechingly. "Has anything out of the ordinary happened, anything at all?"

Elvira shook her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't even know Violet was missing until her uncle stopped by."

Elvira obviously didn't have any more information to give, and any more questions would probably raise suspicions. It was doubtful that Vi would come back here anyway. Still, she needed to dig just a little more about the mystery 'uncle'.

"OK, thank you for going over all this with me. It looks like we might have to try New Orleans then," Buffy said in mock resignation. She paused, pretending to think this over. "Oh, wait! Did Vi's uncle leave his cell phone number or the hotel's?"

She had taken an educated guess that the 'uncle' left a contact number, and from the way Elvira began rifling through some papers in search of it, it was a good one. Really, she was on a roll.

Elvira soon found what she was looking for. "Here it is," she announced, squinting at the paper as she read what was written on it. "It's definitely a local number."

Buffy needed to see that paper. "Then let me give you my cell, too, in case you think of something or see something after we leave," she offered, quickly picking up a pen that was lying on the counter and reaching for the paper.

The woman obligingly handed it over, and Buffy saw the name 'Alastair Davies' printed neatly on the paper.

Obviously, the mystery uncle was using Vi's last name to up the credibility factor. The first name could be made up, too – wasn't she at that very moment scribbling down 'Anne'? – but she doubted it. Honestly, who the hell would pick Alastair as a cover name? And wow, it just screamed 'I'm British', which bolstered her Watcher theory.

She then moved her focus to the number underneath the name, trying to commit it to memory as she wrote a fake number down. She doubted Elvira would ever call it, and she didn't want to risk the wrong person getting a hold of her real number and finding out she was there.

"This has been a big help. Thank you," Buffy said sincerely, handing the paper back as she turned to leave.

"I hope you find her!" Elvira called out as she walked away.

Buffy nodded and left, repeating the phone number in her mind like a mantra. As soon as she was out of sight, she pulled out her cell and quickly dialed the number.

"Good evening, St. Charles Hotel. How may I help you?"

"Hi," Buffy said. "Could you please connect me to Alastair Davies' room?" Seeing as he gave Elvira this assumed name, she figured that he must've checked in under it as well or else he would never get any messages.

There was a pause, presumably to look up the room number, and then, "Hold please."

Buffy hung up as her call was put through. She had just wanted to confirm that he was still there, which he clearly was. She knew that it would be in Vi's best interest if they shared knowledge and maybe even worked together. From what Elvira said, Vi had been missing for about a week, and she either left in a rush or someone cleared out her room to avoid suspicion. Either way, it spelled trouble with a capital T.

Nevertheless, she wanted to think this through before she approached Uncle Alastair directly. She had no idea how the Council thought of her, seeing as their relationship had been anything but idyllic, and she still had less than fond feelings for them.

Great. First I saved a vampire and now I have to deal with the Council, she sighed. Vi is so gonna owe me for this.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 6: Ace in the Hole

A/N: As always, thanks to my wonderful betas!

Eric sat in his office chair, his long legs stretched out in front of him. The bar was quiet; the sun had set only an hour ago and Fangtasia wouldn't open until 10pm, so no one else was there yet. It was also dark inside, as he hadn't bothered to turn on any of the lights. He just stared at his desk with unseeing eyes, too deep in thought to focus on any tangible object.

It had been almost 24 hours since the Slayer had walked through the front door of Fangtasia, and he was no closer in deciding how to handle the situation.

Before the Great Revelation, having a Slayer in one's territory was uncomfortable, but rarely was it cause for alarm. Whenever the girl was discovered in the vicinity, word was simply spread to give her a wide berth and her activities were monitored. Why stir the pot, especially when said pot was like a damned phoenix, rising again and again without end? It just wasn't worth the effort.

Once there was a rumor that a Slayer had been turned into a vampire, but Eric never heard anything after that, so he assumed that it wasn't true or didn't go as planned. Either way, he considered it a good thing.

To him, turning a Slayer seemed like a monumentally bad idea. As it was, there was the occasional vampire who couldn't accept their new life and eventually committed suicide. But the slayer, she was indoctrinated to loathe vampires with a religious fervor; her sole purpose was to kill as many as possible until one eventually got her. It would stand to reason, then, that turning one would only create a highly volatile and unstable yet extremely powerful creature.

No, it was better to stay off the radar altogether, using the glamour when possible and killing only when necessary, a rule by which most vampires abided. It was easy to stay hidden, too. In all his many years, Eric himself had never come across a Slayer. The world was a big place, and she was just one little girl who could only be in one place at a time. Besides, Slayers tended to focus on those mindless half-breed vampires and demons that lacked the intelligence and restraint to remain hidden from humans.

Now, however, there was no protocol on how to handle the Slayer, just as there was no indication of what she would do post-Great Revelation.

Before last night, he would have assumed that the Slayer would quickly ally herself with groups like the Fellowship of the Sun. It would be the logical progression, wouldn't it? He could see it now; the Slayer would become their savior, a hero bound by destiny to kill vampires. She would be their fucking Second Coming. And she would become his enemy. It would all be very dramatic.

Then the Slayer casually strolled into his bar and ordered a coke.

She wasn't at all what he expected. For one thing, she didn't try to kill him. She didn't even threaten him, not until she felt threatened herself. He doubted that it was because she was obeying the law; as if she, the Slayer, would feel compelled to follow human law any more than he did. But why then?

It was that 'why' that had him resist his initial impulse to order her out of his territory and even possibly kill her. Instead he waited for Chow and Pam and the information they would bring. Chow wouldn't be in for another hour or so; he was coming from Alexandria, which was a few hours away. Eric anxiously awaited his arrival. He would've sent his third in command there last night, but he never would've made it back before sunrise. Pam, on the other hand, would be in soon.

Pam found him sitting in the exact same position an hour later. She breezed into the office with an amused look, flicking on the lights before sitting in an empty chair. She immediately began speaking without preamble.

"Her name is Buffy Summers," she said, arching one delicate eyebrow at this but making no further comment. "Up until recently, she resided on a Hellmouth in California. As you know, most of our kind stays away from Hellmouths, so information on her is scarce. The Sheriff of Southern California sends her regards, by the way."

The implication was not lost on Eric. Under normal circumstances, he would owe Beatrice a small favor for this; however, the Sheriff of Southern California hadn't told him that the Slayer was moving into his territory. While none of his kind kept tabs on the Slayer, per se, a good Sheriff would know when the girl moved and notify the appropriate vampire authority out of common courtesy. Therefore, he and Beatrice were more or less even, and this was her way of telling him.

"She's been the Slayer for at least 7 years and apparently she's quite good. Beatrice said that the half-breed problem has been almost negligible in Southern California, thanks to her," Pam continued. "In fact, they think she stopped the half-breeds from opening the Hellmouth and releasing their demon counterparts."

Eric frowned at this. "That would've been disastrous. And Beatrice did nothing?"

"Beatrice and her people didn't know themselves until recently. They thought it was just the usual conflict between the half-breeds and the Slayer, and they had their hands full with the Great Revelation. Then the Hellmouth collapsed, taking the whole town with it. It took awhile to piece together what had happened," Pam explained.

"And why is this the first time we're hearing of it?" he asked, clearly not impressed with the Sheriff of Southern California.

"They have notified the King of Ohio, who has sent some of his people to monitor the Hellmouth in Cleveland more closely. It's all very embarrassing for Beatrice, though, so she's trying to keep it as quiet as possible," Pam smirked, sharing Eric's disdain for California's sloppy work. "Within reason, of course."

Eric nodded, temporarily mollified by this. He would think about that later; for now he wanted to focus on the subject at hand. "What else do we know about the Slayer?"

"Beatrice did say that there was talk that she allied herself with some half-breeds. Some even believed that there was this great love affair between the Slayer and a vampire," Pam said skeptically.

Eric's eyebrows went up at this. "Is there any truth to this?"

Pam shrugged. "There was some anecdotal evidence, but nothing concrete. Personally, I wouldn't put too much stock in it. They also thought that she had died at one point, but obviously that wasn't true," she said wryly.

"Still, it makes one wonder how the rumors got started in the first place," he mused, becoming more and more interested as the conversation went on. "Where in town is she staying?"

Pam had a pained expression on her face. "Do you know how many Annes are staying in Shreveport right now?" she said. At his pointed look, she rolled her eyes and replied, "She's over at the Shreveport Motel under the name Anne Alexander. And she's been making inquiries about her friend."

Eric expected this. He had considered running interference at the hotels, but, at this point, he wanted as few people involved as possible, especially humans. They were so unreliable, and the last thing he needed was to raise everyone's suspicions and consequently the Slayer's as well.

"Have there been any disappearances, any vampires unaccounted for since the Slayer arrived?" he asked, leaning forward in his seat. This was crucial.

Pam hesitated, a rare occurrence for her. "No, not exactly," she said slowly. "But Amelia came to me today as soon as the sun set with some interesting news. She's out in the bar, waiting to speak with you. I'll go fetch her." Pam quickly rose to her feet and stepped out of the office.

A few minutes later, Pam came back with a pretty brunette in tow. Amelia was a fairly young vampire, only about fifty years old. She still felt ties to humans and was trying to coexist peacefully with them. She had heard of Eric's own efforts to mainstream – at least in appearance – so she came seeking permission to stay in Shreveport, which he granted. In return, she came to Fangtasia at least once a week to play nice with the tourists.

Eric instantly noticed that Amelia was walking gingerly. Then he focused sharply on the wounds on her wrists; he could smell the burnt flesh. She nodded to him in deference before carefully lowering herself to the empty seat. Pam took the seat next to her and waited.

"What happened?" Eric demanded, immediately assuming that the Slayer did this. Why else would Pam bring Amelia in to discuss this now? His thoughts turned deadly.

"Drainers, late last night in the park," Amelia replied tersely. "They had silver nails." She held up her wrists so Eric could see the gaping holes.

Eric was momentarily taken aback; he was not expecting this answer. Then his eyes narrowed. In his mind, all Drainers had death warrants over their heads, and he was judge, jury, and executioner.

"Are they still alive?" he asked in a low voice.

"Yes," Amelia confirmed bitterly. Though she still considered herself a Mainstreamer, she had her limits. "Another human, a girl, came and prevented me from getting to them."

The Slayer. So she was there after all. And she was protecting the Drainers. Yet here Amelia was, neither staked nor drained. Not much surprised Eric anymore, but this Slayer was doing just that. Over and over again. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Eric sat up in his chair. "Tell me everything," he ordered.

"The Drainers were attacking. I had just managed to throw them off when the girl showed up and held me down. She was going to stake me," Amelia said, growling at the memory. "They stopped her, though, and that's when she realized that they were after my blood. She said that she wasn't going to let them kill me just for money and that she was going to save me. It seemed to pain her a great deal." She grinned at this.

"So she subdued the Drainers and then freed you," Eric said slowly. He looked to Pam, who merely shrugged. Apparently, she was at a loss to explain this bizarre situation, too.

Amelia nodded. "Quite easily, too. She was strong, abnormally so. I would've thought she was high on our blood if it wasn't for the fact that she had no idea about it," she said hesitantly, tempted to ask some questions about this girl that the Sheriff was obviously interested in.

Amelia tried to stay out of vampire affairs as much as possible, but she was curious. And the girl did save her, however reluctantly. To both her relief and disappointment, Eric didn't give her the chance to ask anything further.

"Can you track these Drainers down?" he asked, purposefully changing the subject.

A small smile curled her lips. "Yes."

"Already working on it," Pam cut in, her eyes sparkling with anticipation at the arrival of their guests of honor.

He sat back with a satisfied smile. "Good. Thank you, Amelia." It was an obvious sign of both appreciation and dismissal.

Amelia understood and quietly left the room.

Eric barely registered her departure; his mind was too busy absorbing all this new information. The Slayer was a mystery, a paradox. His curiosity about her was overwhelming, silencing any reservations he should have had. Still, he wanted to move cautiously; his actions could have a far-reaching impact on all vampires. It could also give him a very rare opportunity. The question was, an opportunity for what?

Pam shut the door and sat down, studying Eric closely for a few moments. She knew her maker all too well.

"Is collecting feisty blondes going to become a new hobby of yours?" she asked dryly. Then she pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I've always wanted a doll collection."

"I wouldn't start knitting matching outfits just yet," he said mildly, to which Pam made a face. "But it seems that we may have some interesting possibilities before us."

"If she doesn't go on a killing rampage when she finds out-" Pam was interrupted by a knock on the door.

She pursed her lips in amusement as Eric held up his hand to quiet her.

"Enter," he called out.

The door opened and Chow walked in. Eric nodded to him, but his eyes were fixed on the redhead walking behind him.

"Hello, Violet," Eric greeted her calmly.

"Hi," she said, biting her lip nervously, unsure of why he wanted to see her.

"I think you left out a few important details about your former life," he said mildly. "Such as your association with Buffy Summers, the Slayer?"

Vi gave him a weak smile. "Uh, oops?"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 7: Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition

A/N: Thanks to my betas – Jason, leathon, murg, SariLane, and satsuma – for their help!  
A/N2: Thank you, DaniD, frizzy, pensivegal, pureevil, and RockyWilliams, for the recs!

~ flashback ~

Vi stepped out of Fangtasia to get some fresh air. Though it was hot outside, it was nice to leave the noisy, crowded bar for a few minutes. There was a boisterous tourist group taking pictures out front, however, so Vi decided to take a short walk.

As she began to stroll down the street, she noticed a couple duck into an alley next to the bar. Curious, she walked over and looked down the passageway. But the couple was no where to be found.

They must be around the corner, she thought, for she could see that the alley curved around the back of bar.

She could also see a door at the far end, probably a side entrance to Fangtasia. Actually, as alleys went, it wasn't bad. It was mostly clean and decently lit. Vi wasn't surprised; the Fangtasia vamps obviously wanted to keep things on the up and up, and dark, dirty alleys just asked for trouble.

After looking down the alley for another minute, she turned to leave. Whoever they were, they were clearly two consenting individuals. Besides, she wanted to be as far away from them as possible; she had already witnessed Fangtasia's strict enforcement of the 'No Biting on the Premises' policy.

That's when she heard it: the slight sounds of scuffling and a faint moan coming from the exact place the couple disappeared.

I'm not a Slayer anymore. I'm not a Slayer anymore, she thought, even as she stealthily made her way down the alley.

It wasn't the brightest thing to do, but she couldn't turn away. Even though she wasn't a Slayer anymore, she still had good instincts. Those instincts were now telling her that these were sounds someone made when they were struggling. And she had seen too much, done too much, not to investigate.

Still, she had her doubts. She wasn't naïve enough to think that the new kind of vamps never killed anymore. But here? Behind Fangtasia? Somehow it didn't ring true, and it was that doubt that convinced her to look into what was going on before raising the alarm. For all she knew, she was going to be very embarrassed when she stumbled upon an intimate scene.

Not for the first time, she cursed her non-Slayer status. Even though she only had that power for a few short days, it was amazing, exhilarating, and she felt truly alive. And then it was gone.

She had told herself – and Buffy – that this trip was for educational purposes, and it was. If she was truthful with herself, however, she knew it was also because she was a tiny bit curious about becoming a vampire, especially since she could hold onto her soul and not kill people. Not that she would go through with it. Probably. Maybe.

Vi bit back a sigh. No, she would be happy being an ordinary human. Then she grinned. Well, an ordinary human with a stake, a small vial of holy water, and kick-ass martial arts skills.

It was those skills alone that saved her at that precise moment when someone came hurtling toward her as she rounded the corner. She was able to sidestep the attack and execute a foot sweep, using her assailant's momentum against him to send him crashing to the ground.

She quickly jumped to her feet and looked at her attacker, or more specifically, his game face. This wasn't a true vamp; it was a hybrid. She immediately felt her heart race in anticipation. Hybrids were pretty scarce since they closed the Hellmouth. This was the first one she saw since she left Sunnydale actually.

Without a moment's hesitation, she quickly pulled out a stake she had hidden and plunged it into the vamp's heart. She watched with great satisfaction as he disintegrated in a plume of dust.

Hmm, probably a newbie. Luckily… she thought. Then she froze. Wait, this wasn't the guy I saw walk into the alley-

Before she could finish that thought, someone tackled her from behind. As she fell to the ground, she thought she saw someone at the end of the alley. Before she could yell for help, however, she made contact with the asphalt as the vamp fell on top of her.

Every bone in her body groaned in protest as she got the wind knocked out of her. As she lay on the ground, struggling to get her breath back, she saw a man leaning against the wall. It was the guy who had entered the alley with the vamp, and he wasn't looking too good. He had a dazed look on his face as blood trickled out of two neat puncture wounds on his neck.

"Impressive," a female voice breathed in her ear. "It's not going to save you, but it's impressive. If I wasn't supposed to leave a warning for the Sheriff, I would consider having a little fun with you, human."

"You still can," Vi grunted as she slammed her head back into the vamp's face. It was just hard enough to make the vampire slightly loosen her grip. Vi looked over toward the man and shouted, "Go! Get help!"

Eyes wide, the man just stared for a second. Then without another word, he got to his feet and made a break for it. Unfortunately, the only way out was past the two on the ground.

With a snarl, the vamp jumped to her feet and grabbed his arm to stop him. Vi had anticipated this, however, and reached for her vial of holy water the moment the vampire had jumped off of her. She quickly opened it and tossed the contents at the vamp's face.

The vamp howled in pain as her skin sizzled. She let go of the man's arm as she tried to backhand Vi.

Vi ducked and tried to follow the man, but the vamp was too quick. Before she knew it, the vamp was holding her from behind in an impossible grip, using one arm to restrain her and the other to wrench her head to the side, exposing her neck.

"I'm glad you came along, little girl. You'll be a much better message than that other human," the female vamp delighted. She looked at Vi closely and smiled. "Look how you're shivering. The poor little lamb is afraid."

But Vi wasn't scared; she was shaking with rage and frustration. She had fought dozens of Turok-han on the Hellmouth and she was going to die here at the hands of a hybrid minion who wasn't even after her because of who she was, or had been? She was just going to be a freakin' message? She snorted at the indignity of it all.

And yet it was true. She felt an intense, sharp pain as the vampire bit into her neck and began to drink. Although it hurt like hell, Vi refused to give the vamp the satisfaction of hearing her scream. Instead she heard the vamp make a surprised sound of delight. Vi idly wondered about that, but her thoughts moved elsewhere as her vision swam and she felt herself weakening from the blood loss. On the bright side, the pain was almost gone. It was a very small consolation, though.

She was dimly aware of a crash behind her. Suddenly, the vamp that was holding her up to feed had vanished, and she felt herself falling to the ground. After some sounds of scuffling, something light sprinkled down on her face. Ashes. The vamp that was killing her was dust. If she had just the tiniest bit more strength, she would've laughed in delight. Vi felt someone, her one-minute-too-late savior, gently pick her up. A vaguely familiar face swam into her rapidly fading vision.

The bartender from Fangtasia. Chow.

She had talked to Chow quite a bit over the past week. At first, he was a bit taciturn, but after he realized she wasn't going to ask him silly questions or worse, try to form a fan club, he warmed up. In his opinion, very few humans who entered Fangtasia treated vampires with the respect they deserved, but Vi was one of them.

He quickly assessed the damage. She could've sworn she saw something flicker in his eyes as he looked at the wound on her neck – surprise, wonder, even? – but that could've been the blood loss talking.

"You've lost too much blood. You're dying," he stated, showing no emotion either way over her predicament.

She was able to muster a weak smile. "Kinda figured that out on my own." She closed her eyes and took a ragged breath. "Worst vacation ever, and that's saying a lot."

He studied her for another moment. "I could make you a vampire," he asked solemnly.

At first Vi thought that he was joking or being cruel; then she saw that he was serious. She blinked in shock. She didn't know whether he was offering to sire her out of pity, impulse, or just to stick it to those damn hybrids, but she wasn't going to give him a chance to change his mind. Call her weak, but she didn't want to die in an alley, no matter how clean it was. Add to that the thought of having that power back with a soul… It took her less than a second to answer. She'd deal with the consequences later.

"Please."

It was a whisper, barely audible. Luckily, she was talking to a vampire with supernatural hearing. He gave her a small smile and bent over her neck. She barely felt his fangs pierce her skin, hardly felt his blood flowing into her mouth a few seconds later.

Then there was nothing.

~ end flashback ~

Vi fidgeted in her chair. She felt Eric, Pam, and Chow's eyes on her as they sat around Eric's desk. This whole vampire hierarchy thing was still very new to her, but it didn't take a centuries-old vamp to figure out that she was in a crapload of trouble. She also knew that she was compelled to tell the Sheriff of Area 5 what he wanted to know; Chow, too, for that matter, seeing as he was her maker. And they wanted to know about Buffy. Just great.

Up until this very moment, Vi wasn't sure they even knew about Slayers, however unlikely that seemed. After all, Slayers didn't know about them until the Great Revelation. Generally, the whole 'mortal enemies' thing didn't work if only one side knew about it. And if they did know, they obviously didn't have the hybrids' 'kill or be killed' mentality; otherwise, Slayers would've known about them long ago. At least Vi had that going for her.

She cursed herself for not being better prepared for this. She thought that she'd have much more time, though, both to feel Chow out about Slayers and to explain everything to Buffy. It wasn't like she had to have a background check before she became a vamp.

She didn't count on the adjustment period, however. Her focus had pretty much been on nothing but blood, blood, and more blood the past few days. Who knew that newly made vamps needed so much? And learning how to control her blood lust so she didn't kill anyone? So much easier said than done. On top of that, she was never left alone. She had obviously taken too much time, though, and now the Sheriff knew about the Slayer.

This could mean only one thing; Buffy was in Shreveport looking for her. She had to be; it was the only logical explanation. And knowing Buffy, she had probably made one hell of an impression.

At least Eric was clearly not a pile of vampire goo; that was encouraging. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance that they all could walk away from this situation. Of course, she would have to get through this night first.

"Buffy's looking for me," she said as calmly as she could.

Eric didn't immediately respond, which did nothing for her nerves. But maybe that was the point.

"And causing quite a stir around town in the meantime," he finally said, an inscrutable look on his face.

Unsure of what to make of his comment, Vi smiled nervously. "Yeah, she tends to do that. It's part of her charm actually."

He ignored this comment and jumped right to the heart of the situation. "You should've told us that you know the Slayer. And that she would come looking for you," he said quietly. His displeasure was obvious, descending around Vi like a pall.

She cringed; she wanted the inscrutable look back. Glancing at Chow, she fervently hoped that she at least didn't take him down with her. It was a poor way to repay the person who saved her life. Well, in a manner of speaking.

"I know. And I was going to, I swear," she said emphatically. At Pam's delicate scoff of disbelief, she got a little defensive. "Well, eventually. It isn't exactly the easiest topic to bring up, you know."

Eric frowned. "That may be, but this is the Slayer, not some pathetic human looking for their lost loved one. It's fortunate for you that she has not harmed anyone," he replied evenly. "Now tell me; is she a threat?"

"No," Vi said immediately. Then she paused. "Well, not exactly. She knows we're different than the hybrids. As long as we don't hurt any innocents…"

"Define 'innocent'," Pam requested, a thoughtful expression on her face.

Vi inwardly winced. Chow had explained to her how Eric kept tight control over his territory, making sure nothing happened that would jeopardize the peace between humans and vampires, i.e. the wholesale killing of humans. But that didn't mean he and the others had any qualms over doing non-Slayer friendly things to those they thought deserved it.

"As long as humans aren't disappearing and she isn't attacked, Buffy won't give you any problems," she insisted.

Eric weighed her words. "You seem convinced of this. But what will you do if she does harm one of us? Are you willing to take responsibility?" he pressed.

Vi gulped, but she didn't hesitate. "Yes," she said as confidently as possible, though the sudden gleam in Eric's eye was unsettling. "If anything happens, it's my fault. The only reason Buffy is here is to find out what happened to me, so-"

"What will she do when she finds out?" Chow interrupted. Usually, he was a silent member in Eric's meetings, but he was protective of his new childe.

"Well, she's not going to be happy," she admitted, as she pictured Buffy's possible reactions, none of them pretty. It didn't help that she wasn't hating her new undead life. Well, except for this part.

Her apprehension must have shown on her face, because all three vampires were suddenly giving her dubious looks. She rushed to reassure them.

"But once I explain the circumstances to her, she'll accept it… eventually. Besides, it's not like I'm breaking new ground here."

This got Eric's attention, not that she felt it was lacking before.

"What do you mean?" he asked, staring at her intently. "She's associated with vampires before?"

She bit her lip, silently cursing her big mouth. "She's had truces with vamps and demons. You know, the non-evil ones," she said cautiously, trying to be as vague as possible.

She was so not bringing up Spike or Angel. She didn't care if she got in trouble for this later. There were some lines friends just didn't cross, and dishing about one's love life to pre-destined enemies was one of them.

Luckily for her, Eric didn't probe any further; he had something else on his mind. "Truces are one thing," he said slowly. "But why would she save one of our kind from Drainers?"

Vi burst out laughing, despite the gravity of the situation. "Buffy saved a vamp? Oh, I wish I was there to see that. She must've been so cranky," she said gleefully.

She quickly sobered when she saw that she was the only one finding the funny in this. Still, she felt herself relax a little. Buffy was causing major confusion because she was not threatening them, and they didn't know how to handle her.

"What can I say? Buffy's no ordinary Slayer," she shrugged.

"That much is apparent," Eric said, the tiniest bit of amusement creeping into his voice. "I would have thought someone with her… abilities would gravitate towards the Fellowship."

To everyone's astonishment, Vi gave another snort of laughter. She couldn't help it; she had seen the Reverend Steve Newlin speak on television a few months ago, and it took all of two seconds for her to see that Buffy and the Felllowship would not mix.

"Buffy uses her own judgment and does what she thinks is right, even if that means saving a Mainstreamer. Somehow I don't see the Fellowship liking that too much. Throw in a little fanaticism and misogyny, and well, trust me when I say it wouldn't end well," she grinned as an image of Caleb in two preacher pieces popped into her mind.

Eric mulled this over. Violet was turning out to be quite the wealth of information. Of course, this raised another important question, one that had been at the back of his mind since she had first began talking about the Slayer.

"Tell me. How do you know so much about the Slayer? I was under the impression that Slayers kept their identities hidden, much like we did before the Great Revelation," he shrewdly pointed out. "I find it curious that, as her friend, you know about this part of her life."

The smile vanished from Vi's face. Apparently, show and tell time wasn't over with yet. She knew this was going too well. Talk about a false sense of security.

But then, nobody ever expects the Spanish Inquisition, she thought to herself humorlessly.

She could always play dumb and make up some excuse, but she ran the risk that they would find out about her Potential status on their own, which would not be good. She decided to take the plunge. It really couldn't make the situation worse, could it?

"Well," she said slowly. "I helped Buffy fight the First and its army of-"

"The First?" Eric interrupted. "The first what?"

"The First Evil," Vi explained.

Eric and Pam exchanged glances. Beatrice did not mention this. There was much, much more to Buffy Summers than what the Sheriff of Southern California reported. Violet, too. How did one even go about defeating the First Evil?

"And what help could you, a human girl, possibly give?" he pressed.

"More than you'd think," she said slowly. Then she straightened up in her chair and held her head up proudly. "Especially since I was a potential Slayer, training to become one."

A deafening silence filled the room. Vi waited. And waited.

"You were in line to become the Slayer?" Pam finally exclaimed, looking her up and down unabashedly as she reevaluated her already changing opinion of Chow's childe.

Vi nodded. She contemplated whether she should elaborate on this or mention a certain activation spell. Before she could figure out how to broach the subject, however, Chow spoke up.

"I knew she was different the instant I smelled her blood," he said with a reassuring look to Vi, who was as surprised by this revelation as Pam and Eric. "I didn't know why, but I didn't ask about it, either."

"How touching," Pam commented dryly.

"It is," Vi shot back boldly before giving her maker a grateful look for his support.

Pam just rolled her eyes and looked to Eric, who had been studying Chow and his childe throughout this entire exchange. Little did they know, Violet had received a reprieve before she even entered the room. She was obviously important to the Slayer; therefore, her safety had become Eric's number one priority. Now he was discovering that her ties to the Slayer and to Chow went even deeper than he originally thought. This was getting very interesting.

"Yes, it is," he agreed with a faint smile. Then he paused. "Is that why you were attacked that night?"

Vi swallowed her bitterness at the memory, remembering her frustration at being unable to fight the hybrids off.

"No, definitely not. They had no clue who I was," she replied. "It's like I already said. They just wanted to leave a message for you."

"And in doing so they brought the Slayer to town," Eric said with a small smile.

Vi grinned, her fangs extending as she imagined Buffy's reaction. Then it all clicked: the questions, Eric's lack of anger, everything. "You want to get Buffy involved in this, don't you?" she blurted out.

Eric quirked his eyebrow at her dismay. "Not necessarily. But it seems we may have a common interest."

Yeah, me, you big sneak of a Sheriff, Vi thought with a frown. And I give you just the leverage you want.

She didn't say this, of course. Instead she decided to warn him. "She already got caught up in one vamp war. I don't think she'd be too keen to get in the middle again."

"Didn't you say that she protects 'innocents'?" Eric asked, the picture of innocence. "You were fortunate that Chow stepped in, but others won't be."

Sure, now he was using logic against her. She bit her lip in chagrin. Clearly the Sheriff was a master of manipulation. And he liked pressing buttons. And Buffy liked to push back. No good could come of this. She needed to see Buffy.

"I should talk to her before you start drawing up battle plans. And the longer I wait, the worse it will be," she pointed out. For good measure, she added, "And the less likely she'll want to have anything to do with you."

To her immense relief, Eric nodded in agreement. "We'll have to find her, though, as it's unlikely that she'll return to Fangtasia," he said, giving a meaningful look to Pam and Chow.

Vi narrowed her eyes at this, trying to decode what he meant but coming up empty. "Okay," she replied cautiously. "So, what? We'll wander the streets of Shreveport until we find her?"

"Something like that," Eric said with a small smile as he rose from his chair.

Vi made to follow, but Chow shook his head. She noticed that he and Pam hadn't moved, either, just Eric. The Sheriff was going to find Buffy by himself. This wasn't what she had in mind. At all.

"You're joking, right?" she exclaimed, too stunned to think of how insolent she sounded. "You can't go by yourself!"

Eric narrowed his eyes, but he kept his tone mild. "I thought it would be less threatening if I went alone."

She looked him up and down incredulously. "Have you seen yourself lately? And what will you say? 'Come with me if you want to see your friend'? Because I can see that going over well," she scoffed.

Eric was nonplussed. "I'm sure I'll think of something," he said, this time a little more severely, before giving Chow a disapproving look.

Vi ignored this; too much was at risk. "I should be there," she insisted, starting to get to her feet.

Chow stood and blocked her path. "No, you can't go. Your blood lust is still too strong and uncontrollable to be out in the open," he reminded her.

She began to protest, but she knew he was right. She was already starting to get hungry again. And she saw the worried look in her maker's eye.

"I'll get to see Buffy, though, right?" she asked plaintively.

Eric fixed her with a stern gaze, and in that instant Vi was reminded that all was not forgiven for her or for Chow. She swallowed any further protest and sat back down. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her maker visibly relax.

With a smirk of satisfaction, Eric turned to leave, pulling out his cell phone and dialing as he walked away.

Vi resisted the urge to bang her head against Eric's desk. This was disastrous. Eric was going to confront Buffy, possibly holding Vi over her head, which would not make Buffy happy. But if she resorted to violence, Vi would be responsible. Eric had them just where he wanted.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 8: Best Laid Plans

As always, thanks to my betas – Jason, leathon, murg, SariLane, and Satsuma!

Upon leaving the Hotel Transylvania, Buffy immediately began to head for her motel. Weapons weren't really necessary during the daytime, so she currently had just Mr. Pointy on her. Even that was more out of habit than actual necessity. Night had fully descended, however, so it was time to break out the party favors.

Now I just need to find a party, she thought as she turned onto one of the main thoroughfares in town.

Although the Shreveport Motel was a good three miles away, she didn't mind the walk. She had extra energy to burn from the general lack of slaying. Besides, she could use the time to figure out how she wanted to handle the Watcher's Council.

Aside from some major pride swallowing, could she really play nice with them? Did she want to? She tried to think of one time, just one, when her interaction with the Council didn't end in bloodshed or betrayal or both. And she was coming up empty. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Uncle Alastair.

Then again, she didn't have many other options. Vamp-wise, she was at a dead end, and not one of those cute cul-de-sacs with basketball hoops and manicured lawns. Still, there was no guarantee that the mystery Watcher had any info on Vi.

Buffy was so deep in thought debating whether she should Council up or not that she almost didn't notice that she had walked right by the St. Charles Hotel. When it finally registered, she stopped and turned around until she was peering through the glass windows.

Not surprisingly, the St. Charles was quite the swanky establishment in that pompous, stuffy kind of way, as evidenced by the lobby full of antique furniture that didn't look remotely comfortable to sit on. Factor in the Cordelia-worthy looks of disdain the doorman was currently giving her, and the Council probably felt right at home.

She turned her attention to the few people milling about the lobby, as if she would be able to recognize Alastair Davies if he happened to be there. In reality, unless he had a sign over his head that said 'Watcher', she probably wouldn't be able to pick him out of a lineup. And yet every fiber of her being screamed in protest at the idea of walking inside the hotel and asking for him at the front desk.

Buffy straightened. This was pointless. She obviously wasn't 100% sold on this little reunion, and for good reason. If she had to work with the Council to get Vi and the others back, so be it. She wasn't going to jump into bed with them – and that was so on the metaphorical level – without thinking it through a little more, though. She just hoped she was making the right decision.

One more night, she told herself as she turned to resume her trek back to the motel. If I don't find anything else out tonight, I'll call him first thing in the morning.

And who knew? Maybe tonight would be her lucky break. After all, she had gotten an e-mail from Xander and her first bit of solid information from Elvira today. Good things always happened in threes, right? Wait, maybe that was death. Crap.

After Buffy got a few more stakes and a silver dagger back at her room, she immediately headed toward a section of town she hadn't explored the night before.

She had gotten halfway to her destination when she felt it: there was a vampire nearby. She scanned the people around her and honed in on a woman she saw a little further down the street.

Buffy knew it was a hybrid vamp; she could feel it. She hadn't had time to examine it too closely the night before, but she could now appreciate the subtle difference in her spidey sense between the two kinds of vampires. She was glad for it, too, because it was difficult enough trying to distinguish Mainstreamers from the rest without playing 20 Questions. At least something about slaying remained simple.

She began walking towards the vamp, knowing full well that she would have to wait until they were some place more secluded to confront her. Sunnydale had been small, and enough freaky things happened that the streets were pretty empty by this time of night. Not Shreveport, though. The city was alive with people, too many people. The last thing she wanted was for someone with a cell phone camera to see her cornering this vamp and go all Crimestopper on her.

The vampire soon turned off the main road onto a side street. Buffy kept her eyes sharp and her ears open as she followed her. Unfortunately, she couldn't stay too close for fear of giving herself away. She trailed at a comfortable distance as the vamp wound her way through a maze of side streets, passing the occasional person every now and then.

At the first opportunity, Buffy began to make her move. She stopped, however, when she sensed another vampire nearby. She watched as her vamp disappeared around a corner; then she heard voices, two female voices to be exact. Buffy froze and listened, catching snippets of their conversation.

"…ready for the attack on Fangtasia? Serafina wants the Sheriff to know that she's serious…"

"Will we get to feed, too?"

"We'd better!"

Just then, a group of people passed by and the vampires stopped talking. As soon as the humans were out of sight, Buffy walked around the corner to face the vamps. As interesting as their conversation was, she didn't want to risk losing them.

"Excuse me," she said brightly. "I think I got turned around. I'm looking for Texas Street. Do you know how to get there?"

The two vamps exchanged glances, failing miserably – in Buffy's opinion, at least – at hiding their delight in finding a lost and seemingly helpless human. "We're headed there ourselves," one vamp said with an insincere smile. "Why don't you come with us?"

"Great!" Buffy exclaimed as she walked within striking range. She quickly checked to make sure no one was coming near. "Hey, maybe you can help me with something else, too. I'm looking for my friend. She's about this tall, red hair, and, oh yeah, she's a Potential Slayer."

She pulled out a stake and waited for their reactions. To her immense satisfaction, both vampires instantly morphed into their game faces and snarled.

"Slayer," they both hissed as they launched themselves at her.

Buffy smirked as she dodged their initial attack. She then executed a quick snap kick and sent the vampire closest to her flying into the wall of a building, stunning her slightly. Buffy turned toward the other one.

"So, like I was saying, I'm looking for my friend. And I'm thinking that you might know where she is," she continued conversationally as they circled each other.

"Why would we know?" the vampire replied angrily, throwing a punch toward Buffy's head.

Buffy rolled her eyes as she ducked and followed up an uppercut. "Duh, because you're vampires," she explained.

Conversation momentarily stopped as the other vampire had recovered and rejoined the fight. After trading a few more blows, it soon became apparent to Buffy that these vamps were newbies; not the best sources of information. While they were more apt to talk, especially under pressure, they were often kept in the dark by their masters for that very reason.

Not wanting to waste any time, Buffy decided to fast track her interrogation. She swiftly staked one vamp and pinned the other to the wall before the dust had a chance to settle. The vampire struggled, but Buffy had her in an iron grip. She pressed her stake against the vamp's heart.

"So, start talking," she said in a quiet, deadly voice. "Where's my friend?"

"How should I know? We didn't even know you were in town, let alone your friend," the vampire spat out, though there was fear in her eyes.

Buffy decided to try a different angle. "Who's Serafina? Is she the Master here?" she asked, testing the vamp's reaction to her questions.

The vampire immediately pressed her lips together, suddenly unwilling to talk.

Buffy frowned. This was discouraging. Generally, people clammed up when they had something to hide, like the vamp was doing now when questioned about this Serafina. Yet the vampire had no problem denying any knowledge of Vi. It wasn't conclusive by any means, but it wasn't a good sign, either.

She tightened her grip. "I heard you talking about an attack-"

Buffy suddenly stopped talking; there were voices coming closer. More people.

"Crap," she muttered under her breath.

Although she had a million more questions, she couldn't risk exposure, or worse, the vamp hurting any innocent bystanders. The people were getting closer, so she had to cut her losses and go. At least she had a name. Serafina.

She looked at the vamp regretfully. "Well, I hate to stake and run, but I don't think people here will buy the whole PCP story," she explained.

With that, Buffy staked the vampire and watched as she exploded into a cloud of dust. She waved her hands around to dissipate the ashes just as a small group of people rounded the corner. She smiled as they passed by. Once they were out of sight, she let out a sigh of frustration.

The hybrid vamps were planning an attack against the Sheriff at Fangtasia. They also mentioned feeding, which meant humans would be involved. While it irked her to no end that she was going to do the Sheriff's dirty work for him, she didn't have much of a choice, not if she wanted to protect the humans inside the bar, or have another opportunity to question the hybrids about Vi.

Buffy silently tread down the alley adjacent to Fangtasia. She didn't have much of a plan beyond lurking around the bar in the hopes of circumventing the attack, if it even happened tonight.

As she walked closer toward a door in the alley, it began to open. Buffy jumped back, putting a good ten feet between her and the door, her stake out of sight but at the ready. She was reluctant to stake a non-demony vamp outright, especially after last night's fiasco in the park, but if they attacked her she considered them fair game.

To her astonishment, the Sheriff himself stepped out, in all his Viking glory, with a cell phone to his ear. Judging by the slight widening of his eyes at the sight of her, he didn't anticipate this, either. He quickly shut the door behind him and stowed his phone away. And did he look uncomfortable?

"Hello, Slayer," he said pointedly.

"Sheriff," Buffy replied evenly in an outward display of calm.

Her body was humming in anticipation, however. He knew who she was. And based on their little meeting the night before, he probably had less than fond feelings toward her. She wasn't too pleased with him, either. Still, slaying the Sheriff would bring a whole host of new problems.

Of course, she might not have any choice. Maybe many of these vamps didn't kill humans – the jury was still out on that – but Buffy couldn't imagine they took too kindly to Slayers. And truth be told, after seeing how fast he could move the other night, she was kind of looking forward to seeing what kind of fighter he was.

To her surprise and slight disappointment, the attack never came; he just studied her, looking almost casual with his hands in his jeans' pockets.

"This is usually the part where you make some sort of threat," Buffy said helpfully. "Like, you're going to make me wish I never came to your town, you'll drain me dry… You know, your standard posturing and vamp bravado."

Eric didn't reply immediately; he was still trying to decide the best way to handle this situation. He didn't know why she was there. It didn't matter; regardless of the reason, her presence sent all of his plans reeling. Now he would have to improvise.

From what Violet had told him and his own experience the previous night, the Slayer wouldn't attack unprovoked. So he wouldn't provoke her. Much.

"I'm not interested in killing you," he finally said.

Okay, definitely not expecting that, Buffy thought, not that she was going to let him know that.

"Well, I'll give you major points for originality. Not so much with the intimidating, though," she said breezily as she brought her stake into view.

Eric ignored her taunt. For now. "It's not in my best interest to kill you," he calmly explained.

The scary thing was that he looked like he meant it; not to mention he had a certain gleam in his eye as he looked at her. Buffy pursed her lips in annoyance, suddenly reminded of his little extortion attempt the night before.

"Why? Because I owe you a favor? How's your jaw doing, by the way?" she asked sweetly.

"Just fine," Eric replied with a faint smile before getting back to the subject at hand. "And no, it's not because you owe me a favor, although there is still that. No, we've gone thousands of years without conflict with you and your people. There's no reason to start a battle neither of us can ever win. It's not as if we kill humans anymore."

Buffy had to give him credit; he said that entire last part with a straight face. Too bad she wasn't Called yesterday. "Right," she said sarcastically. "You're just the epitome of all that's good and wholesome."

"You must think so. Why else didn't you try to kill us last night? Or stake Amelia when you had the chance?" he asked.

Amelia? That must've been the vamp in the park. Geez, news traveled fast in Shreveport.

And this conversation just took a turn toward the awkward, Buffy thought with a frown.

Just because the Sheriff supposedly didn't want to kill her, it didn't mean that she had to explain herself to him. No, it was time for the time-honored tradition of deflection.

"As much as I'd like to debate the ethics of slaying with you, I so don't have time for this," she replied. "And neither do you. The hybrid vamps are planning an attack on Fangtasia, maybe even for tonight."

Eric frowned. The leader of the half-breeds had been trying to intimidate him into allowing them to hunt in his territory without repercussion, leaving little messages for him like Violet. He knew it was only a matter of time before they made a more aggressive move. The only reason they hadn't yet was because the Great Revelation benefited them in some ways, too, and they were reluctant to take that final step. It didn't mean they wouldn't, however. He would have to take care of this once and for all.

Then he realized that this was why the Slayer had come to Fangtasia. It wasn't necessary to manipulate her; it was perhaps even foolish to do so, at least so openly. Violet was mistaken, but then so was he.

He gazed at her speculatively. "You're not what I expected," he said.

"Let me guess," Buffy said dryly. 'You thought I'd be taller."

Eric shook his head. "No, I thought you'd be more… savage? Feral?" he smirked, unable to resist the opportunity to goad her.

She didn't disappoint. He could see her bristling.

"And you rip people's throats out in a civilized manner?" she retorted. "Oh, wait, I forgot. You don't kill people. But if you ever fall off the wagon, I'm here for you. Really, I am." She twirled her stake in her hand for emphasis.

Buffy abruptly stopped and gripped her stake tightly as her senses started going off the charts. At the same time, she noticed that the Sheriff had tensed. She looked down the alley. At least a dozen vampires were approaching, maybe close to two dozen.

"Wow, you must've really pissed them off," she commented distractedly, already assessing battle strategies in her mind.

Eric didn't bother responding, focusing instead on the vampires. The odds themselves didn't bother him. It was a busy night in Fangtasia, however, so he needed this handled as quickly and quietly as possible.

Not having much of a choice, he banged on the back door. At Buffy's questioning look, he replied tersely, "Reinforcements."

She nodded in approval and slight apprehension. After all, adding more vampires to the mix didn't exactly give her the warm fuzzies.

As the door opened, she glanced over her shoulder to size up the recruits. First came that ray of sunshine, Pam, who raised her eyebrow at the sight of Buffy.

"Eric?" she said questioningly, but Eric was too busy staring intently at the Slayer. Then Pam honed in on the approaching vampires, her fangs extending as she hissed. She quickly stepped into the alley without another word.

Next came the Asian vamp from the night before, and right after him was–

"Vi?" Buffy exclaimed incredulously. "Vi!"

She was so astonished to see her friend that she didn't think to question why Vi was with the Fangtasia vamps. She launched herself at her friend and caught her up in a huge embrace. That's when she noticed how cold Vi was.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 9: Rock, Meet Hard Place

Disclaimer: I just thought that I would throw in a reminder that I (sadly) do not own Buffy, True Blood, or the Southern Vampires Mysteries.

Buffy felt numb. She pulled away and saw Vi's pale, anxious face. All she could focus on was the pale part, though, and the numbness quickly gave way to fury.

Killing innocent humans and turning them definitely rated as slay-worthy offenses. And when the victim was one of her friends? The Sheriff had just made the biggest mistake of his soon-to-be-over undead life.

"It's not what you think," Vi began, trying to calm the rage she saw building in Buffy's eyes. It was useless, however. She might as well have been speaking to a wall; an angry, stake-wielding wall.

Before she could try to explain further – and more importantly, before Buffy could act on her wrath – they were interrupted by an explosion of gunfire.

Buffy gave a start at the sound. Gunfire? She hated guns. And since when did vamps start packing?

Luckily, she and Vi were still standing on the inside of the open back door. The two of them immediately took cover there, ducking as bullets ricocheted off the walls.

Pam and Chow also dodged the incoming spray of bullets, opting to take shelter on the opposite wall of the alley behind a dumpster.

Eric, however, did not join either pair. He was furious that the half-breeds would attack in such a manner. Gunshots were sure to bring unwanted attention, if they hadn't already. Luckily, the music in Fangtasia was loud and the walls were thick. Though there were probably people outside on the streets, humans weren't exactly known to run toward gunfire when they heard it. Still, all it took was one frightened human; the police were sure to arrive sooner or later. Without a moment's hesitation, Eric flew into the air.

"No way," Buffy breathed in awe despite herself. And was she a little jealous?

She peeked around the door. From the looks on the hybrids' faces, they were just as surprised as she was. The Sheriff was pulling out all the stops, apparently. He landed behind the hybrids and began attacking them.

Chaos broke out as the hybrids tried to fend off this unexpected assault, causing their steady gunfire to falter. Never one to pass up a perfectly good diversion, Buffy began to rush toward them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Asian vamp and –what was her name, Pam? – move in a blur toward the action.

Before Buffy could take more than a few steps, however, she found that Vi had placed a restraining hand on her. She looked at her friend questioningly.

"They saved me, Buffy. I swear," Vi said fervently, willing her friend to believe her. "I'll explain everything once this fight is over. Just promise me you won't try to kill them. Please."

Buffy narrowed her eyes and studied the vampire before her. Despite her anger, she could see that it was stillVi; the girl whom she fought side by side with in the Hellmouth, whom she trusted with her life and who was now asking Buffy to trust her. Though her friend was now a vampire, Buffy was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Fine," she said in a clipped voice. "I'll wait until I hear your explanation before I stake their sorry, lying, manipulative asses."

She trusted Vi, but that didn't mean that she wasn't still seriously pissed off at her.

Vi nodded. It was the best she was going to get, all things considered. Then she grinned, unable to resist the opportunity to take a dig at her friend. She had missed Buffy, and it was good to see her care about something again, about her, even if it was in rampage mode. Besides, a little Slayer rage could be to their benefit right now.

"Then let's go kick some hybrid ass, slowpoke," she said, purposefully emphasizing the last word right before she used her vampiric speed to race toward the fighting.

Buffy scowled as she set off at a sprint. Bringing up the rear was a new concept for her, one that she wasn't loving. Deep down, though, she was glad to see that her faith in Vi was well-founded; she was still the same smart ass. Buffy threw herself into the fray with abandon.

"You know, you really picked the wrong time to attack," she said casually to the four hybrids she was facing off with. "Cuz I'm all about displacing the aggression right now." Then she bared her teeth in a predatory grin and attacked.

The Fangtasia vamps were using their speed to their advantage, making it extremely difficult for the hybrids to use their guns, especially in the close quarters of the alley. Most had pulled out silver knives for hand-to-hand fighting; not all, however.

One hybrid raised his gun and tried to take a shot at Eric. He missed, and the bullet ricocheted off the wall, hitting Chow in the gut. He made a hissing noise of pain, clutching his stomach as the smell of sizzling flesh filled the alley.

"Chow!" Vi cried out as she sped over to the gun-toting vamp and knocked the weapon out of his hand.

Buffy heard the genuine concern in Vi's voice and briefly wondered at it before she turned her attention back to the two hybrids before her, one on each side. She shook her head at them disapprovingly.

"Silver bullets? Seriously? As if guns weren't bad enough? Aren't you supposed to have honor among thieves or something? A Vampire Code, maybe?" she asked.

Both hybrids lunged for her. She ducked under the arm of one, quickly staking him. Then she delivered a powerful back kick to the other vamp, sending him flying back in the wall. Before she could stake this one, however, a flash of silver about 20 feet directly in front of her caught her eye.

After taking care of the hybrid that had inadvertently shot Chow, Vi had immediately rushed over to her maker, making sure he was okay. Distracted, she didn't notice when another vamp used the opportunity to hurl a silver throwing star at her.

Buffy saw, however. Acting purely on instinct, she ran up behind Vi and pushed her out of harm's way while twisting her own body to avoid getting hit. She couldn't totally get out of the way, though, and the star hit her in the upper arm. The blade dug deeply, firmly imbedding itself in her flesh.

With a grimace, Buffy pulled it out and whipped it back at the vampire in one smooth motion. It caught him in the forehead, and Buffy quickly staked him as he stumbled back from the force of the impact.

"Buffy! What the hell are you doing? I can't die, not from that!" Vi exclaimed angrily, appearing at her friend's side. She firmly ignored the tug in her gut at the sight and smell of her friend's flowing blood.

"Getting hit wasn't exactly part of my plan, but you're welcome," Buffy retorted. "And you are so not getting out of this whole situation by getting injured. I like my anger to be full of righteousness and free of guilt." She gave a smirk before jumping back into the fray.

Vi couldn't help but roll her eyes at this. At that exact moment, she knew that they would get through this. She enthusiastically threw all her concentration back to the task at hand.

Eric, who was fighting close by, raised his eyebrows at the entire exchange. At first, he, Pam, and Chow had all eyed the Slayer warily when she first joined the battle, unsure if she was going to try to stake them too if she got the chance. Eric was particularly watchful, as he knew most of her anger was directed at him.

To his satisfaction, the Slayer only had eyes for the half-breeds. To his delight, she was stunning to watch as she cut through Serafina's vampires. He took back every pre-conceived notion of Slayers being savage killing machines. She moved with an exquisite grace that showed her control and skill as much as it did her fire and passion. It was difficult to believe that she was human at all, Slayer or not. Of course, from the first moment that he had first seen her, he had known that this Buffy Summers was something… unique; however, he had obviously underestimated how much.

The battle had become a free-for-all. In the tight quarters of the alley, individuals were lost in a flurry of arms, legs, and flashing silver. Still, Buffy managed to catch glimpses of the Fangtasia vampires. She had to admit, albeit grudgingly, they were excellent fighters.

Chow moved in short, sharp movements, debilitating his enemies with lethal efficiency. Pam- well, Buffy never thought someone could fight delicately with a heaping of disdain and still be any good, but the blonde vampire was proving her wrong. Though extremely dangerous, Pam was fighting as if the entire situation was distasteful to her, and it probably was. And then there was Vi. Buffy was proud to note that the former Potential definitely hadn't lost her edge. Even though she was still a fledgling, Vi was no novice.

Buffy's gaze finally flickered over to the Sheriff. It was easy to find him in the melee, at least. He stood a full head and shoulders over most of the others, his golden hair flying about as he tore into the hybrids.

His movements were big and arrogant, like he was; but it worked for him. His arms swung out like pendulums, moving so quickly that hybrid ash swirled in their wake. Buffy watched as he beheaded a vampire with his bare hands. So not an easy thing to do, no matter how the movies made it seem. Factor in the reality that the supernaturally strong hybrids weren't just going to stand there and let themselves be decapitated, and… wow. He was totally rockin' the Norse god vibe. If she didn't have a strong yen to kill him herself, she would've admitted that she was glad he was on her side.

Yet progress was slow. At the outset, the hybrids had outnumbered them almost five to one, and although they weren't as quick as the Fangtasia vamps – because really, who was? – they were still fast and just as strong. Their numbers had been cut in half, but it hadn't been as easy as it should have been. The main obstacle was the fact that the Fangtasia vamps had been caught off-guard by the attack and possessed no weapons to kill the hybrids, only bare hands.

At first, it didn't even occur to Buffy that this would be a problem. After all, they were vampires – not exactly high on the helpless scale. Now, however, she could see how this significantly slowed them down. She quickly pulled out two of the extra stakes she had brought with her.

"Vi!" she called out, throwing a stake to her friend.

The redhead caught it deftly with one hand and spun around, immediately putting it to good use as she found her mark.

Buffy paused, debating to whom she should give the other stake. Pam was the closest, so, although she was loathe to do it purely on principle, she called out to the vampire as she tossed the stake to her. Pam's eyes widened with surprise as she caught the weapon.

"Oh, don't die of shock," Buffy snapped crankily. "It's a stake, not an olive branch."

Pam gave a small smile that was equal parts thanks and amusement before turning back to the hybrids with relish.

Soon there were only five or six hybrids left as the air became thick with vamp dust. As the only one that had to breathe, Buffy was chagrined to find herself coughing.

One hybrid saw this and took advantage. Buffy found herself knocked to the ground. Jumping to her feet, she faced her attacker. It was a female vamp with long, ash-blonde hair. The two quickly engaged in a fierce volley of kicks and punches. Based on the way the vamp fought, it was clear to Buffy that this hybrid was a Master vampire. Serafina, she guessed. They were pretty evenly matched, especially with Buffy's injured arm.

"I've always wanted to kill a Slayer," Serafina sneered as she launched into a series of kicks. "Even if you are whoring yourself out to these arrogant vampires."

This was the wrong thing to say. Buffy looked at her in outrage. "There hasn't been" punch "nor will there ever be" kick "any whoring of any kind" kick "with these vampires!" she seethed.

She sent Serafina sprawling to the ground with one final punch. Before she could make the kill, however, she found herself dodging a knife thrust from another hybrid who was intent on protecting his Master.

After trading a few blows, Buffy managed to disarm and stake him; that's when she heard a faint click. She whirled around to see Serafina pointing a gun at her. There was about 10 feet between them, too far to knock the gun out of the vampire's hand in time and yet too close to dodge any bullets. She gripped her stake in frustration.

Serafina noticed this and gave a triumphant smile. "You know what they say, don't you? Never bring a stake to a gunfight," she taunted, right before she pulled the trigger of her .500 Smith and Wesson in rapid succession.

Buffy had little time to react; she threw herself to the side, all the while knowing that it would be too late. She braced herself for the expected pain.

To her surprise, however, the only pain she felt was when her momentum was seriously disrupted by what could only be described as a Mack truck slamming into her, causing Buffy to gasp at the impact. At the same time, she felt a huge splash of something liquid-y hit her in the face, neck, chest, even the back of her throat. She half-swallowed, half-coughed reflexively. Blood. She didn't have too much time to think about it, though, as said Mack truck continued to send them both reeling backward until her head smacked against the pavement with incredible force.

"Ow," Buffy groaned, furiously trying to blink away the stars that had appeared. When that didn't work, she squeezed her eyes shut.

After a moment or two when the dazed feeling had mostly passed, she cracked open her eyes. She immediately noted that it was black as night, as in unnaturally so. Not a single source of light whatsoever. And why was it so hard to breathe?

Suddenly, a weight partially lifted and she could breathe again. Buffy looked up to see that the Mack truck was actually the Sheriff. The black she saw was his T-shirt; his much larger body had been completely covering hers. And dear god, he was heavy.

He had saved her. To make matters worse, she became aware that his hand was cradling her head, presumably to help absorb some of the impact of the fall. Buffy half wished she had just taken the bullet herself. Then she saw the two gaping, bloody exit wounds on his chest. Hmm… maybe not, especially when she saw that the holes were a few inches above where her head would've been.

Buffy had watched enough CSI with Willow to know about gunshot wounds and forward spatter; she had been right next to the bullets' path as they burst from the Sheriff's chest, and as a result, she got covered in his fast moving blood. And she swallowed some of it. So gross.

Eric was staring down at her, a little stunned himself. In a rare display, he was at a loss for words. He didn't react at all when Buffy growled, "Get off of me, now, before I redefine flying for you."

Buffy knew she was being a little ungrateful, seeing as he had just taken two bullets for her that were probably silver and hurt like hell. She forced herself to take another deep breath, or as much as she could with his considerable weight still on her, willing herself to not overreact. This wasn't his fault, and when she staked him, she wanted it to be for the right reasons.

To her immense relief, he complied and stood after extracting his hand from under her head.

As Buffy got to her feet as quickly as the spinning, slightly blurry alley allowed her to, she saw that all the hybrids were dust, except for Serafina, who was being subdued by Pam. Her focus was on Mr. Hero himself, though; he was standing just a few feet in front of her, looking at her the way a child would look at a puppy he found under the Christmas tree. It was freaking her out a little. And she must've hit her head really hard, because she felt weird.

Suddenly, Buffy's breathing was halted again as Vi caught her up in a bone-crushing hug.

"Geez, Vi! When did you get so strong? I know you're a vamp and all, but seriously?" she gasped.

Vi quickly released her. "Sorry, Buffy, I was just- oh!" she squeaked, her eyes wide as saucers as her friend's appearance finally registered.

"What? What is it?" Buffy frowned.

"Uh, you're covered in blood," Vi said as calmly as she could. She could tell by the scent that it was Eric's. What she didn't know was whether Buffy had swallowed any.

"Ugh! I almost forgot about that, though I don't know how, because eww," Buffy said, scrunching up her nose in disgust, oblivious to what this could possibly mean. She tried to wipe her face and neck as best she could, though she left huge smudges across her cheek and collarbone. "Better?"

Vi nodded mutely, shooting a furtive glance over to Eric.

"Later," he said curtly in response.

Eric knew that he would have to tell the Slayer about blood bonds. He wasn't a fool, though. She needed to hear the truth about Violet first. He didn't know if she had even ingested his blood. He wasn't feeling any of her emotions yet; then again, she was the Slayer, so it could affect her more slowly or not at all. Even if she did swallow some, it would've been a small amount, most likely making the bond temporary. But still, the possibilities…

When Eric first saw the Slayer as he exited Fangtasia, he thought it was a turn of bad luck. Now, however, he realized that it couldn't have worked out better than if he had actually planned it. Though the wound on her arm had stopped bleeding some time ago, the scent of her blood still lingered, and it was intoxicating, almost to the point of distraction. First things first, though. He grabbed the stake that was still in Vi's hand before turning his attention to Serafina.

The Master vamp was still struggling. She hissed as Eric came near. "You think you've won, but for every one of us that's fallen, ten more will rise up. We will strike when you least-"

Never breaking stride, Eric walked up and staked Serafina without ceremony.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," Pam commented as she dusted herself off.

"Thank god," Buffy muttered to no one in particular. "I hate monologuing."

Eric ignored both of them and began giving out directions. "Chow, check the perimeter and make sure there are no other surprises, then take care of that wound. Pam, handle any questions inside the bar. Put the glamour on whomever you must."

"And miss the fireworks here?" Pam said. At Eric's look, she sighed. "Fine. All this half-breed dust is getting in my hair, anyway."

Pam and Chow left, swiftly setting about their tasks.

Normally, Buffy would have been pissed at the lack of control over the situation, but she stayed silent because the weirdness she had been feeling suddenly intensified. It was like all her Slayer senses were heightened, almost to the point of being painful. And she felt jittery; well, jittery and tingly all at the same time, and not necessarily in a bad way, just a socially awkward one.

A very unpleasant realization dawned on her; she was buzzed, literally and figuratively. And it was familiar to her. She felt the same way after drinking Dracula's blood, though this was much, much more intense; the Sheriff must be extremely old and powerful.

Buffy noticed that Vi was looking at her with the strangest look on her face; she must have noticed something was off. The Slayer in Buffy took over, determined not to let on to the others that their blood had any effect on her. She already promised that she wouldn't stake them until she had heard Vi out and the edge to her fury had been blunted by the fight with the hybrids; there was no need to lose all credibility.

Vi felt a knot forming in the pit of her stomach. Buffy was uncharacteristically subdued, which gave her the confirmation she needed; the Slayer had ingested the blood of one extremely old and powerful vampire. Who knew what effect this would have? And how the hell was she going to tell Buffy this?

Before she could even make an attempt, Eric stepped in. "Perhaps we should take this inside?" he suggested.

Buffy snorted in derision as she crossed her arms, trying to maintain her composure despite the fact that her entire body was humming.

"Because that worked out so well last time. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… Well, there's lots of shame to go around," she said pointedly. Then she cocked her head to the side as she heard something in the distance. "Police sirens," she announced to Eric and Vi's surprise. "Looks like the boys in blue are way more competent here than they were in Sunnydale."

Eric eyed her speculatively. He couldn't hear the sirens, though he didn't doubt they were coming. His blood had enhanced her hearing beyond even his own capabilities. He wondered what other abilities of hers it affected.

Then he looked all of them over with a speculative eye. Violet looked acceptable with just a few scratches that were already healing. The Slayer was a different story, though. She was covered in blood, both his and her own. The two holes in his shirt wouldn't do, either. Without saying another word, he walked through the backdoor to the Fangtasia.

Buffy let out a sigh of relief at his absence even as a wave of euphoria and power washed over her. Unfortunately, the Sheriff came back within seconds in a new shirt. He was also holding out a wet washcloth and clean T-shirt for her.

"Take it," he ordered. "Before the police arrive."

Reluctantly, Buffy complied. She took the washcloth, taking as much blood off as she could. By the time she was finished, the cloth was saturated with it. The sirens were getting closer, so she quickly pulled the shirt over her bloodied tank top. It was big, almost skimming her knees, but it covered up all obvious injuries. When Buffy looked down, she saw the words 'Fangtasia, The Bar with Bite' in big blood-red letters across her chest.

"You've got to be kidding me," she hissed. "Now I'm free advertising?"

"It's all I had," Eric shrugged, though there was a smirk lurking beneath his blank façade. "Now if you'll excuse me."

He briskly made his way to the front of Fangtasia. As he walked away, his smirk turned into a full-fledged grin. He could feel the Slayer's annoyance and disbelief; a blood bond had been formed. It felt… different; but then, he had already established that she was unique.

Buffy couldn't believe her luck. She was getting a moment alone with Vi; she could let go of her rigid controland hear the unadulterated truth. Then she frowned. The Sheriff must've been pretty confident in what she was going to hear.

The two girls watched him walk away until he rounded the corner and was out of sight. Vi wanted to delay the inevitable conversation just a second longer. At first, Buffy wanted to wait until he was out of earshot; then she was distracted by the Sheriff's conversation with the cops that she could now listen in on, courtesy of her new vamped up hearing.

"We're sorry to bother you, Mr. Northman, but…"

Mr. Northman? Buffy snorted in derision. The vampire has lived for how many years and the best alias he could come up with was Northman? Maybe she would just start introducing herself as Buffy Californiagirl. She rolled her eyes before turning to Vi, forcing the other sights/sounds/smells out of her mind.

"Start with the explaining," she ordered. "What did you mean, they saved you?"

Vi took a deep breath. "I was attacked by hybrids who wanted to leave a little message for Eric. Chow came out, staked them, and then tried to help me. It was too late, though. I was dying. He offered me the chance to become a vampire, and I took it," she replied.

Buffy opened and closed her mouth a few times, but no sounds came out. She wasn't expecting that.

Vi frowned. "Buffy," she said quickly. "It isn't bad. I still have my soul, and I don't have to kill anyone to survive."

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Buffy demanded.

"I was going to, but I only woke up a few days ago. I didn't have an opportunity since then, because someone has been with me 24/7," Vi explained. Then, to avoid any further misunderstanding, she added, "To protect me."

Buffy took a moment to absorb all the information. "So Chow's your maker?" she asked, wanting to get it all straight. At Vi's nod, she continued on. "And Chow works for the Sheriff, which means…"

"That I answer to both of them," Vi confirmed.

This meant Buffy's hands were tied. And life's colossal joke on her just got funnier.

"Well, I guess you had no choice, right? It was either that or die," Buffy finally managed to say. "I mean, it's not like you wanted it, right?"

It was meant as a joke, but Vi flinched involuntarily.

"Right," she replied, a little too slowly.

This caught Buffy's attention, and a crazy thought popped into her head. "Did you want to become a vampire?" she asked, watching her friend's reaction. "Before it happened?"

"Well, no. Not exactly," Vi hedged, unwilling to lie when asked so directly but hesitant to answer with a simple 'yes'. It didn't even come close to revealing the truth of the situation.

This confession was too much for Buffy. She had been worried sick about Vi, and the whole time her friend had wanted to become a vampire. And then there were the other Potentials. Did she waste precious time here when she should've been looking for them instead? Or was there a mass-vampire pact among the girls? Buffy felt overwhelmed, and her emotions burst to the surface in a rush of angry words.

"How could you? Even if these vamps do keep their souls, they're still the undead! Why on earth would you ever want to become one? You, of all people, should know better!" she exclaimed furiously.

Instead of apologizing, like she expected, Vi got angry. Really angry.

"Don't you dare judge me, Buffy! I didn't come here to become a vampire, but I would be lying if I said the thought didn't cross my mind!" She felt her fangs extend, but she didn't care. "Maybe wanting to become a vampire was bad judgment, maybe it wasn't. But wanting something isn't a crime."

"Vi, I-" Buffy tried to say, but Vi wasn't through venting.

"And do you know why I thought about it? Do you have any idea how difficult it was? How gut-wrenchingly painful it was to suddenly not be a Slayer?" she ranted as she began to pace back and forth. "To know that all these baddies were out there and not be able to do a damn thing about it because I was just an ordinary girl again?"

Buffy staggered back as if struck. She felt the wall against her back and leaned on it for support. When the Potentials-turned-Slayers-turned-Potentials left, she knew she was being a little selfish in letting them go. She was too caught up in her own grief to care. Yet if Buffy had stopped to think about it, she would've realized how difficult it must've been for them.

She'd always complained about the burden of being the Slayer - it was a burden where many sacrifices were made – but she also remembered the terror of the Cruciamentum.

Buffy felt all her self-righteous anger leave her. She had set out to try to save her girls, never thinking how she might've played a part in their disappearance. She slid down the wall, defeated.

"Uncle, mercy, white flag is a-waving," she said weakly as she held her hands up in surrender. "I- I'm so sorry, Vi. I had no idea."

A look of contriteness washed over Vi's face. She immediately sat down next to Buffy and leaned into her, half in comfort and half in apology. "You were entitled to be wrapped up in your own grief. You lost everything," she said softly. "Shit happens, Buffy, and in the life of a Slayer, it happens a lot. You can either roll with it or let it consume you."

Buffy leaned into Vi for a moment, too, before turning to look at her friend. "Since when did you become Insight Girl?" she asked wryly.

"'Become'? Please, I was born that way," Vi scoffed playfully, glad to know that things were okay between them again. "It's not my fault it took you this long to recognize it."

This elicited a small laugh from Buffy. Then she sighed, closing her eyes as she leaned against the wall. "All the other girls are missing, too," she said quietly.

"What?" Vi exclaimed. "How is that possible?"

"I thought that maybe the hybrids were behind it, as revenge. But… that's not what happened here," Buffy explained. "It still could be them, obviously, and you were just a fluke. But… I'm not going to find out by staying in Shreveport."

Vi fell silent for a moment. Then she said in a quiet voice, "I wish I could help." Her eyes were filled with regret. She was too new to this whole vampire lifestyle, though, and she needed to stay by her maker and get full mastery over her hunger.

Buffy gave her a sad smile. "I know you can't. You have a new life, er, unlife, here."

The vampire caught the Slayer up in a fierce hug. "That doesn't mean you're not still a part of it," Vi declared. Then she raised an eyebrow. "And as a friend and sister Slayer it's my duty to tell you that you look terrible."

Buffy stared in shock at her friend's words. "Hey," she protested. "What do you expect? We just took on a cadre of gun-happy vamps. Not all of us are immortal here, Miss Fangtastic."

Vi peered at her friend closely. "Buffy," she said gravely, looking her in the eyes, deadly serious. "You're wearing sneakers."

"Which is a valid shoe choice for patrolling in this weather," Buffy countered defensively. At Vi's look of amusement, she scowled. "Oh, fine. So my fashion sense went the way of the Hellmouth, along with all my worldly yet stylish goods. I was a little too busy wallowing these past few months to think about how style-deficient I've become."

They both stopped talking as they heard footsteps approaching.

"Buffy, this isn't between you and them, not really," Vi whispered. "It's between you and me. I should've told you sooner. And he isn't a bad Sheriff, from what Chow tells me."

"Hmph," was her only reply.

Soon they saw Eric rounding the corner. They both immediately rose to their feet. As Buffy stood, the effect of the vamp blood took hold again. She leaned against the wall a little more than she intended. She felt it give a little under her weight.

What the-? she thought in confusion.

Eric studied them as he drew closer. In reality, he had finished with the police some time ago. He could feel the Slayer's anger, quickly followed by intense sorrow; he could also hear the conversation in the alleyway and decided it best not to interrupt until now. He wasn't going to pretend he hadn't heard, though.

"So, are we even now?" he asked, looking at Buffy with a small smile. "Is all forgiven?"

"Not even close," she shot back.

Vi rolled her eyes. "Buffy…"

Buffy pursed her lips. "Maybe you saved Vi, and for that I am thankful, but that doesn't excuse the lying and the manipulation," she said, looking pointedly at Eric.

"You lied to her?" Vi blurted out. She quickly pressed her lips together at the look she received from Eric.

Buffy saw it, too, and bristled. "Don't you look at her like that," she frowned. "I don't care if she's your minion, fledgling, whatever. And yes, Vi, they lied to me. I came to Fangtasia last night looking for you and they denied ever seeing you."

Eric looked at the Slayer, debating how much to tell her. "There are certain rules when one is brought over, one of them being cutting all contact with your prior life as a human. A vampire doesn't belong in that world anymore; it will only bring trouble."

"And it has nothing to do with the fact that you want to cover your tracks when you kill an innocent person," Buffy said sarcastically.

Both Eric and Vi said something, but Buffy wasn't listening. Her head was starting to pound. She felt another wave of unadulterated power begin to ooze from her every pore. As stealthily as possible, she rapped her knuckles against the brick wall behind her back as a sort of test. To her amazement, she felt the brick crumbling into dust. She was freakin' Supergirl, and it wasn't a good thing. Buffy was seasoned enough to know how dangerous this could be.

She had no control over herself or her abilities. As much as Buffy wanted to stay and rake the Sheriff over the coals, she needed to get out of there before she inadvertently hurt someone. That and… well, the blood intensified a lot of things, including the hunger that followed a good slay – both kinds.

"Look, I don't want to hear any more. You saved Vi and you saved me. That almost balances out the lies and manipulation. Almost. But being the generous person that I am, I'm willing to call it even," she said as she began backpedaling. "But don't think I won't keep track of what's going on here, or with Vi."

Eric cleared his throat, barely suppressing the smile at the surge of feelings. "Before you leave, we need to discuss something. What do you know about blood bonds?"

"I am not pricking my finger and chanting with you, so don't even ask," Buffy said distractedly, only half hearing the question due to the full body tingling sensation that had taken hold. "And again, I'm making with the exit. You can explain all about your freaky blood ritual to me tomorrow."

"Buffy-" Vi began, but Buffy cut her off.

"Tomorrow," she replied a little more sharply than she intended. "I'll be back tomorrow; before I leave for good."

She had it all planned out in her mind. She would seek out Alastair Davies tomorrow, since it was the only lead she had. Then she would go, possibly to New York.

Eric said nothing, although he did not like hearing this. He could do nothing, however. If he pushed the Slayer any further, it could have deadly consequences. For once, the power was not in his hands. He didn't like it. Yet in some ways, it was for the best. He needed to feed to help heal his injuries and he doubted she was going to offer any of her blood. Besides, this was far from over.

Buffy strode out of the alley before either of them could stop her; not that they could, with the way she was feeling.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 10: The Ties That Bind

A/N: Thank you so much for all your reviews! You guys are awesome! And thanks to anyanka, buffythevamp, cupquake, deiticlast, kinomakoto, merlyna, and Xelab for the recs!

I've tallied all the feedback re: True Blood vs. Southern Vampire Mysteries, and if you can believe it, it's pretty much dead even between the two. I obviously have some serious thinking to do. I can say that this fic takes place between Season 1/Book 1 and Season 2/Book 2.

Buffy gave an audible sigh of relief as she reached her motel room. Though she was the tiniest bit tempted to test out her enhanced abilities, going Destructo-girl on the unsuspecting public was not the way she wanted to end the night. No, first she'd take a shower and then go straight to bed to sleep this off. Because this couldn't be permanent, right?

Shuddering at the thought of being on constant sensory overload, Buffy closed her eyes and tried to relax under the hot shower spray. After a few wondrous moments of hearing and feeling nothing but the water on her bare skin, she opened her eyes and began washing all the blood and dust off. She also went to inspect the wound on her arm from the throwing star – except that it wasn't there.

To her astonishment, Buffy saw that the gash had not only completely healed but showed no sign of being damaged at all; the skin was smooth and unmarred without a hint of a scar. Not even her Slayer healing could produce results like that. No wonder people wanted vamp blood. Then again, it wasn't doing her any favors beyond that.

No, Buffy soon realized that she was too keyed up to sleep, though that didn't stop her from trying. If only sheer stubbornness were a superpower.

As she lay there staring at the ceiling, she realized that she should've gotten something to eat on her way back. At least that itch would've been scratched. Damn post-slayage urges.

It wasn't until the sun began to rise that Buffy finally managed to fall asleep despite her, er, itchiness. At least, that was the theory she was going with. How else could she be standing in her pajamas at the edge of the crater that was once Sunnydale?

"Yo, B."

Buffy whirled around. "Faith," she said softly.

She felt a sharp pain as she took in the sight of her friend, especially when she saw that Faith looked exactly as she did the day she died, right down to the shade of lipstick; the only thing missing was the fatal stab wound. Then Buffy frowned. Faith's presence in her dreams could only mean one thing.

"Time to make with the cryptic, huh?" she said with resignation.

Buffy didn't mean to sound so unappreciative; she definitely could use the help. It was just that a prophetic dream usually meant something really bad was coming.

Her tone didn't faze Faith in the least. "What? You want that sexy Sheriff here instead?" she grinned.

"No, of course not. And he's not sexy," Buffy replied indignantly. At Faith's pointed look, she relented a little. "Okay, he's a total hottie. He's also a vampire."

"I know. He's just your type," Faith said with a sly look. When Buffy could do nothing but gape at her in shock, she rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't play Miss Priss with me, B. If they got fangs and you're not stakin' them, you're usually screwin' them."

Buffy finally managed to find her voice. "Two vampires! With very special circumstances!" she sputtered. "And- and- this is ridiculous. You're not even real and you're giving me grief about this. Can we just jump to the prophecy part?"

Faith laughed. "Whatever. Denial ain't just a river, B," she teased. Then she grew serious. "You need to study your history more."

"Great. You've gone from sleeping with vampires to doing homework," Buffy grumbled, even as she was trying to figure out what it meant.

"Hey, I'm just the messenger," Faith smirked.

Buffy studied her friend closely. "Are you? Is this really you?" she asked.

She wouldn't have thought it was possible for Faith to enter in her dreams, but it seemed so much like her. And she wouldn't put it past the Powers That Be, either. They could be cruel bastards when they wanted to be, which was usually all the time.

"Don't really know," Faith shrugged. "Does it matter?"

"No, I guess not," Buffy sighed. Then she realized something. "You know, I've never had a slayer dream where I was this… aware or in control. It's usually more like a trailer to a B horror movie."

Faith studied her for a moment before replying. "You're not the same Slayer anymore, B," she said solemnly.

What was that supposed to mean? Before Buffy could ask, however, Faith continued to speak.

"It's kinda peaceful here. Ya know?" she murmured quietly as she looked out at the ruins of Sunnydale.

"That's because everything is dead," Buffy said bluntly, still feeling guilty over Vi's revelation earlier that night.

She felt a pair of brown eyes sharply turn toward her, but she steadfastly ignored it. Hey, it was her dream. If Buffy couldn't indulge in a little self-pity in her own sub-conscious, then where could she?

Unfortunately for her, Faith didn't give a damn whose dream it was.

"You're not dead," Faith said pointedly. At Buffy's silence, she scowled. "Fuck, B. I didn't sign up for a therapy session, and I don't have time to hand your ass to you. Storm's coming and you have a lotta work to do, so man up."

This got Buffy's attention. "Storm? What do you mean?" she quickly asked.

Faith shook her head. "Don't know. They weren't big on the details. But I know you gotta be ready," she said, looking at Buffy's pajamas critically. "You can't wear that."

Buffy suddenly found herself and Faith standing in front of her closet on Revello Drive. She immediately noticed that wasn't in her pajamas anymore. Instead she was wearing a navy blue t-shirt and shorts. Both had an NY embroidered on them in a vaguely familiar logo.

"Aw, shit! The Yankees? You couldn't have made it the Mets at least?" Faith grimaced.

"You like baseball?" Buffy asked, mentally patting herself on the back for matching the teams to the correct sport. Of course, it helped that she dated jocks at Hemery.

"Nah, hate the game actually. It's just a Boston thing," Faith explained, grinning at Buffy's baffled expression. She walked to the door. "Anyway, my time's up. I gotta go. Oh, B?"

Suddenly Faith was standing right in front of Buffy again. She leaned over and whispered,"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Then she straightened and began to walk away again.

In the past, whenever Buffy heard a foreign language, her mind went to its happy place and firmly stayed there until someone else had figured it out. She didn't have a choice now, though. And here she was without so much as an ancient Codex or a book of prophecies.

Of course, Buffy was getting ahead of herself; first she would have to remember what Faith had said, never mind translating and understanding it.

"Could you write that down?" she called out, half-joking and half-serious, with a dash of desperation. She wasn't ready for her dream to end. Even if it wasn't Faith, it was close enough.

"Not even if I tried," Faith called out over her shoulder. "I don't know what the fuck I just said."

Buffy couldn't help rolling her eyes at this. If this wasn't Faith, then it was a damn good imitation. "You really don't want to make this easy for me, do you?"

Faith turned back one last time and smirked. "Did I ever?"

Buffy awoke with a start. She sat up and looked around the room, half-expecting to see Faith smirking at her. She wasn't, of course. Buffy flopped back onto the bed as she went over her dream. As she lay there, she realized that the overwhelming sensations were gone; now it was just a pleasant power buzz.

Relief flooded through her. If she was going to make nice with Alastair Davies, it would help if she wasn't tweaking. She knew all too well that arrogance was pretty much the gold standard for the Watcher's Council; just like she knew her tolerance level for their attitude was virtually non-existent. It would be a bad start to what was sure to be an uneasy truce if Buffy ripped his arm off or something – accidentally, of course.

Speaking of which, she needed to get in touch with the mysterious and – so far – intact Watcher. Buffy sat up and reached for the phone. As she dialed Information, it occurred to her that it might be too early to call; not that she really cared.

"Hello, passive aggressiveness, my exciting new coping mechanism for the Council," she muttered as she glanced over at the clock. Her eyes widened as she saw the time. "Crap."

It was much later than she had anticipated. In fact, it was almost noon.

Buffy willed the operator to pick up. "St. Charles Hotel, Shreveport," she said promptly.

"Hold, please."

Buffy tapped her foot impatiently as she waited to be connected to the hotel.

"St. Charles Hotel. How may I be of service?"

"Alastair Davies' room, please," she requested.

"One moment."

Buffy took a deep breath and held it. This was it. There was no backing out now. She was going to talk to Uncle Alastair. Was it too much to ask that he not be a complete ass?

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but Mr. Davies checked out this morning."

All the air left Buffy in one big whoosh. She had decidedly mixed feelings, for obvious reasons. It also piqued her curiosity. Why would he leave today of all days?

Oh, well. It doesn't really matter. New York it is, then, Buffy thought as she hung up the phone. At least that part of the dream didn't need a decoder ring.

She got out of bed and got dressed. She needed to go to the bus depot and buy a ticket to New York. Sometimes it was a real pain traveling with a bag full of weapons.

As Buffy walked by the mirror, she caught a glimpse of her reflection; she was shocked by what she saw. Apparently vamp blood affected physical appearances as well.

When Vi had said that Buffy looked terrible, she was right. The sad thing was that it was a vast improvement from a few weeks ago. The missing Potentials had given her a new fire, a purpose, and she felt more like herself every day. It was still a far cry from the old Buffy, though; until now.

The girl looking back at her now had a healthy glow, complete with bright eyes and shining hair, though she was still on the thin side because evidently vamp blood was calorie-free. Still, she looked a lot better.

First it was Vi, then Faith, and now this. The universe was obviously trying to send her a message, and Buffy heard it loud and clear.

She wasn't ready to listen, though. Not yet. She wasn't ready to deal with her pain; it was the only thing she had left of her family and friends. If there wasn't any pain, she'd have nothing else. It would mean that she'd have to say goodbye. Most of all it would mean she would have to start living instead of just being alive.

At that moment, her stomach growled, demanding attention.

Buffy scowled. "Not you, too," she said to her traitorous body. "Can we say 'overkill'?"

Buffy stepped out of the café with a satisfied smile. She had her bus ticket for tomorrow morning, she had e-mailed Xander to tell him that she was coming to New York, and she just had eaten her weight's worth in food.

Now if only the prophecy would translate itself, Buffy wistfully thought to herself as she headed toward the public library.

She stopped short, however, as a huge sign caught her eye.

Fellowship of the Sun Church  
Special event at 3pm today  
Come share in the love with the Newlins  
Cookies and refreshments to follow

This was the anti-vampire group Elvira spoke of? A church that gave out cookies and love? Interesting. And kind of weird.

Buffy hesitated for a moment; it was a little after 3 o'clock right now. This seemed like a rare opportunity to learn about the Fellowship; kind of like due diligence for a slayer. And there would still be time for the library afterward…

Her curiosity getting the better of her, Buffy walked toward the entrance. She would just stand in the back and observe. Worst case scenario? It would really suck, she would cut out early, and she would get some cookies.

Once inside, she immediately noticed all the windows. In fact, the front and back of the church were nothing but glass. Judging by the way the sunlight was streaming in, the building itself must have been aligned on the east-west axis.

Buffy took a look around at the people inside the church. It was crowded; there must've been at least 100 people inside, all jumbled together in a sea of polo shirts, Sunday dresses, and bland smiles. It was kind of eerie.

Then she saw the men walking around the perimeter of the church. Buffy frowned. Though their weapons were well hidden, her trained eye spotted them immediately. Guns in church? They didn't mention that on the sign outside. The Fellowship was becoming more interesting by the minute.

Finally, she turned her attention to the two men and a woman standing in front of the altar. One man was tall and blonde; he was speaking to the other man, who was a little shorter and had dark hair. The woman, a pretty blonde, stood next to them but did not join in the conversation.

Buffy looked for a place to sit, but to her chagrin, the only seats still available were up front. As she tried to decide whether to stay or not, one of the men in front of the altar – the blonde – saw her and motioned for her to sit in one of the empty seats. Reluctantly, she took a seat a few rows back from the altar.

After a few more minutes, the man who waved her in held his hands up to the crowd, and everyone immediately fell silent.

"Thank you all for coming. I'm Reverend Barnes, the pastor here at the Fellowship of the Sun," he greeted. "We are very fortunate today, for we have the founders of our church, Reverend Steve Newlin and his lovely wife Sarah, visiting from Dallas."

There was loud applause as Reverend Newlin stepped forward. Buffy was surprised by how young he was.

"Welcome, and thank you for coming today. Gosh, Sarah and I are just thrilled to see all these smiling faces here," he said in a soft, Southern drawl as he reached for his wife's hand. He looked out over the assembled crowd and smiled. "We are even happier to know that by coming here, you are choosing the way of light."

A small bubble of laughter escaped from Buffy's lips, and she had to cover it quickly with a cough. She didn't mean to, but hearing a grown man use the word 'gosh' had that effect. And the 'way of light'?

Reverend Newlin looked ruefully at the congregation. "Now, I know, it isn't always easy following the path of the righteous. There's a lot of temptation out there. Why, right here in Shreveport, there's a bar that draws dozens of people into its den of sin every day," he said as he shook his head in disbelief. "It may seem like the hip thing to do; but don't be fooled. There's nothing sexy or cool or fun about being an abomination in God's eyes, and that's what vampires are: an abomination."

"The Bible explicitly says that we shall not drink blood, and anyone who partakes in it must be cut off. That's right. We must cut. Them. Off," the reverend emphasized before pausing for dramatic effect. "Just what does that mean, though? Do we simply ignore the vampires and those humans that accept them? Live side by side with them in our communities? No. No, we must not."

Buffy's interest/amusement quickly faded away as alarm bells began ringing in her head; she saw the reverend's eyes become hard for a brief second before he masked it with a humble, unassuming look. She studied him closely as he continued to speak.

"Their very existence threatens our families, our values, and our society," he continued. "They can't have children, which you know of course is a crime against nature itself. So how will they replenish their numbers? They will take your mother, your father, your son, and your daughter. I'm sure some of you know people, good Christian folk, who have already been abducted or bewitched by vampires."

The reverend shook his head in dismay. "We cannot accept this. We, as His children, must fight to preserve the way of the Lord. As it says in the Book of Job, we will break the fangs of the unrighteous and make him drop his prey from his teeth."

Murmurs of agreement reverberated around the church. Buffy's alarm bells turned into a full-on air raid siren. At best, this was irresponsible; at worst, extremely dangerous. He was going to get people killed. Buffy could've sworn her spidey sense was tingling.

"Now, I know some of you are probably saying that God is merciful; God wants us to turn the other cheek, and He does," Reverend Newlin said with a reassuring smile. "But only for His children. Vampires are not God's children, any more than homosexuals are. No, they are both unnatural and evil, hating God's natural order and in doing so hating God Himself."

At that moment, Buffy knew that there wasn't a cookie big enough that could make up for this; and for the first time ever, musty old library books were looking pretty good. The reverend still wasn't done, either.

"It is our duty to protect humanity… by any means necessary. Now I know this may sound scary, just like it was scary for Samson when he was blinded and strung between two pillars. But what did he do? He asked God to grant him the strength to kill the Philistines, even though it would kill him as well. And do you know what? God did it. He gave Samson the strength to push those pillars over," Reverend Newlin said, beaming at the crowd.

"That's what we must do. Our church is growing every day, but we need you. We need to use our combined strength and push over those pillars of evil for it is God's will. Because of this, we cannot falter," he finished. The reverend took a deep breath and smiled. "Now, Sarah has baked some cookies for you all. I hope you'll join us for some refreshments. Thank you, and may you walk in His holy light."

Buffy tried to make a break for it as soon as the applause started. It was impossible, however, as people soon crowded into the aisles. She then tried to cut around the front, but that plan backfired; instead she found herself face to face with the Newlins, who were blocking her escape route.

"Hello there," the reverend said cheerfully.

Buffy smiled politely. "Reverend Newlin, Mrs. Newlin."

"Please, call me Steve," the reverend replied, as he held out his hand. "And this is Sarah."

"Anne," Buffy said, shaking both of their outstretched hands.

Steve's eyes widened in surprise. "That's quite a grip you got there, Anne," he said with a curious look.

Oops, Buffy thought. Stupid vamp blood.

"I, uh, take self-defense classes. You never can be too careful," she said, plastering a fake smile on her face.

Steve nodded in approval. "Amen to that. Now that's what I like to here," he said.

Sarah nodded enthusiastically and smiled at Buffy. "You're not from around here. What brings you to these parts?" she asked, obviously noticing Buffy's accent.

"I'm just here visiting a friend," Buffy replied, smile still firmly in place.

"A young lady like yourself shouldn't be traveling alone unescorted, self-defense classes or not," Steve said pleasantly, though Buffy could practically feel the judgment emanating from him.

Sarah laughed. "Oh honey. Leave her alone. A pretty little thing like her, I'm sure she's got some nice young man to look out for her," she said as she winked at Buffy.

Even if Buffy wasn't the Slayer, she would've been offended. She needed to extricate herself as quickly and painlessly as possible. Short of pushing the Newlins out of the way, however, that was impossible; not to mention that it would definitely draw the attention of the armed men.

Steve gave his wife a sheepish look. "You're right. Besides, you look like you have a good head on your shoulders. After all, you came here, right?" he laughed.

Oh, gag me, Buffy thought. She was beginning to not care whether she made a scene or not.

"Where are you from, Anne?" Sarah asked.

"California," Buffy replied tersely, hoping they would get the hint. They didn't.

Steve's eyes lit up with interest. "Ah, California. We don't have a branch out there yet, do we?" he said, turning to his wife, who shook her head almost mournfully. Steve sighed. "It's a shame, too, because that state is just full of homosexuals and fornicators, which we all know just draws vampires like white on rice."

What amazed Buffy was the way he kept that soft, non-threatening tone to his voice. He did the same thing throughout his little sermon, no matter what he was saying. It was very effective, often masking the sexist, homophobic, vigilante rhetoric.

Give her evil straight up, horns and all, because this Stepford church group was way creepier.

The Reverend Steve Newlin obviously felt uniform hatred toward all vampires, even those who didn't drink from humans. Buffy had a feeling he would feel the same about werewolves, witches, and, hell, maybe even Slayers. She did have the essence of a demon in her, after all.

No, there was no grey in Reverend Newlin's world, but there was plenty of hatred and violence. He was dangerous, plain and simple.

Thankfully, Buffy heard someone calling to the Newlins, and from the tone, it sounded urgent.

"I'm sorry, but you must excuse us. We hope to see you here again," Steve said. "May His holy light shine upon you."

"Yeah, may you be, er, shiny, too," Buffy said, feeling that her face would crack if she smiled any more.

Buffy beat a hasty retreat. She wasn't able to make it out of the church totally unscathed, however; somehow she managed to get saddled with several brochures for the Fellowship, each one with a donation form inside. She sighed with relief when she finally exited the church.

That was an experience, one she'd never like to have ever again.

Eric sat in his usual chair in Fangtasia, looking over the crowd in the bar. The Slayer had yet to show, but he didn't doubt she would come. And he was looking forward to it.

After the battle last night, he knew for certain that she was not one to let go. He wanted her allegiance, something that would not be easily won – or manipulated, as he had already discovered. It was worth it, however.

An alliance with her would be the coup de grace to this war with the half-breeds – not that he wanted to be particularly merciful. The symbolic victory over the Fellowship was not lost on him, either. And the impact it would have on the supernatural community… Eric hadn't felt this kind of joy in years.

In addition to that, there was Buffy Summers, the person behind the Slayer. Eric was quickly discovering that getting under her skin was a joy unto itself. And, after feeling her emotions all night, he wanted to get under more than just her skin.

Of course, he'd have to tell her about the blood bond first, that he could sense her and her emotions. From what Eric had already observed, she wouldn't take it well. There wasn't any real danger, though, as they were in a stalemate of sorts over Violet. She did seem to get cranky very easily, however. That alone made him almost look forward to telling her that the blood bond could make the human feel an attraction to the vampire. Almost.

Eric knew that he would have to tell her about this as well, but the timing would have to be right. While it would be dangerous to withhold this information for too long and have her find out on her own, it would be equally dangerous to tell her now before he had something to tie her to him. That could be remedied tonight, however.

Just then, the Slayer walked into the bar. Eric felt a rush at seeing her again. Pam would be sighing in exasperation if she knew.

He watched as she surveyed the room, taking stock of the customers, escape routes, and potential weapons, all within the span of a minute or so. Then her eyes flitted to his, and her expression went from predator to wry amusement.

He made no indication that he felt her flutter of excitement at seeing him. He kept his face blank as she rolled her eyes at him before walking over to the bar where Violet was sitting.

Eric watched as the two girls chatted and laughed. He heard her talk about meeting some human friend named Xander; he felt her nervousness. This piqued Eric's curiosity. The Slayer could face him without so much as a flinch, but meeting this human made her nervous. Suddenly this Xander became of interest to him.

A few more minutes passed by. Then he caught Violet's eye. It was time to have a little chat with the Slayer.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 11: Old Faces, New Places

A/N: Sorry for the delays recently! I've been fighting an illness this past month or so, and it finally turned into full-blown bronchitis on its merry way to pneumonia. You'd think that this would give me more time to write, but it actually only made me sleepy and slightly incoherent.

A/N2: Thanks to my betas – Jason aka deiticlast, leathon, murg, SariLane, and Satsuma – whose feedback I greatly appreciate and rely on. Also, a big thanks for all the reviews and to asyouwish and blueyes for the recs!

I know some other fabulous authors have made art for this fic, but I didn't want to post or link to their pics without their permission. If you're interested, I'd love to direct people to it! (And if you'd rather I didn't, I won't mention it again! In fact, forget I ever wrote this...)

"It's just so… weird seeing you drink that," Buffy said, her gaze straying to the bottle of TruBlood Vi was holding.

"Yeah, well, it's kinda weird drinking it. It tastes horrible," Vi admitted with a grimace. "But it's not like I have a whole lot of options here."

Buffy studied her for a moment. "Is it hard?" she asked quietly.

Vi hesitated; this wasn't the best place to discuss this. Then again, she didn't know when she would see Buffy again, and it felt good to talk about it with someone. She looked around quickly before dropping her voice so low that only Buffy could hear.

"The hunger is really strong, especially as a newbie. I'm not even supposed to be out in public like this. But, well…" Vi said ruefully. Then her expression sobered as she continued to whisper, "The hardest part is that I can feel my two 'instincts' constantly battling with each other. It's like… a supernatural SmackDown! in my head. All the time."

There was a moment of silence as Buffy digested this information. She hadn't thought about how difficult it would be for a Potential/Slayer to become a vampire – at least one that never lost her soul. Buffy felt her already considerable respect for her friend grow. She couldn't even imagine what that constant inner turmoil must feel like.

Then she sighed. "Do you ever get the feeling that someone up there seriously dislikes us?" she asked.

"Either that, or they like us too much," Vi replied with a grin. "You gotta admit; wherever we go, we put on quite the show, especially you."

Buffy gave her first real laugh in months. It felt both strange and good. "Just call me Puppet Buffy, ready to entertain the PTB at the jerk of the strings," she said wryly.

Vi grinned for another beat before her expression grew sad. "So, you're leaving soon?" she asked.

Buffy's smile faded, too. "Yeah, tomorrow morning," she said. Then she purposefully raised her voice to slightly above a normal speaking tone. "But I'll be in touch. And if you ever run into any trouble, you call me, okay?"

Subtlety was so not her thing.

Vi bit her lip. Lowering her voice again, she whispered, "I appreciate it, really I do, but he's not so bad. From what Chow's told me, he's actually pretty fair and reasonable."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Knowing she wasn't going to win this particular argument, Vi went back to the subject most important to her. "So where are you going?"

"Kennedy."

Vi nodded, understanding what she meant. "Any reason?" she asked, trying to see if Buffy had any leads without asking straight out. While it seemed unlikely that anyone at the bar would put two and two together, why risk it?

Buffy hesitated for a moment. "I had a dream. Faith was there," she finally said in a hushed tone, looking at Vi meaningfully. Then she winced. "There was Latin involved."

Vi chuckled. At Buffy's glare, she swallowed her grin. "I'm so sorry for your linguistic pain," she said solemnly. When the glare turned positively murderous, she quickly said, "Maybe I could help. Unlike you, I was forced to learn a little. What did she say?"

"Something about greasy custard doing the calypso?" Buffy immediately offered.

At Vi's horrified look, Buffy didn't know whether to be offended or amused.

"You're not serious, are you?" Vi asked faintly. She never bought into Buffy's dumb blonde routine, but sometimes the things she said…

Buffy rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Vi. I'm not that bad. I figured out it was Latin, didn't I?" she pointed out.

"Sorry,' Vi apologized sheepishly. "So what do you remember?"

Now it was Buffy's turn to look sheepish. "Okay, there was something custard-y about Faith's message," she conceded. "There was also the word 'qui', I think. That means 'who, right?" She paused as she tried to recall more words.

As Vi watched her friend wrack her memory, she couldn't help but think that it was almost like the days when they were focused on defeating the First, when she was part of the team. She felt a surge of guilt.

"I'm so sorry I can't come with you," she blurted out. "I hate that you'll be all alone again."

All of a sudden, Buffy looked a little nervous. "I won't be," she admitted. "Xander's there."

"Oh," Vi said, clearly confused by Buffy's reaction. Wasn't that a good thing? It definitely made her feel a little better. Then it hit her. "Oh."

Buffy sighed. "Exactly. I haven't seen him since… you know. I don't even know if we're friends anymore."

"Well, you're never going to find out if you don't see him," Vi reasoned.

"But maybe it's better that way," Buffy said hesitantly. "I mean, what if we aren't friends anymore? What if we can't trust each other? This might not be the best time to find out."

Vi frowned. "Are you seriously considering the 'run and hide' plan?"

"Of course not," Buffy protested, bristling at the implication. "I'm going, aren't I? I just… just…" She paused, at a loss for words.

Seeing Buffy's distress, Vi decided to ease off a little. Whatever happened with Xander would happen, no matter what she had to say about it. She hoped the two friends could forgive each other, but a lot had happened. She and Buffy had done some fence mending themselves after the collapse of Sunnydale, and they didn't have nearly the same history as Buffy and Xander; or the same kind of loss.

Vi took a long pull from her bottle at the lull in conversation. As she lowered her drink, she accidentally caught Eric's eye; or maybe not so accidentally. He gave her a pointed look and then moved his gaze to Buffy.

Vi bit back a frown. Eric was probably going to make one final effort to keep Buffy here, which of course wouldn't work. Then again, maybe he was going to tell her about the blood bond, something which Buffy needed to know about. In either case, nothing bad would happen here in Fangtasia in front of the entire bar, right?

"Eric wants to see you," she whispered.

Buffy snorted. "That's nice," she replied, not budging an inch in her chair. She barely restrained the urge to look at Mr. Overlord and stick her tongue out at him.

Vi dropped her voice as low as it could go, barely even breathing the words. She knew that Buffy would be able to hear. "Be nice, Buffy, please," Vi pleaded. "It's just for tonight. And I think you need to talk to him. Besides, he's in charge here, and he could cause… problems."

"Is this the fairness you were talking about?" Buffy retorted.

"I didn't say that he wears fluffy bunny slippers," Vi hissed under her breath. "He's a fair and reasonable yet extremely powerful vampire."

"Please," Buffy scoffed under her breath. "At the end of the day, they all still fit into an ashtray."

Vi frowned. "Uh, actually, we don't," she said, practically mouthing the words as she didn't even want a fly to overhear their conversation.

"Really? No *poof*?" Buffy asked, looking at her friend with unabashed interest.

Vi shook her head. "No, we turn into a pile of pulpy flesh, so it's more of a… slurp," she explained quietly.

Buffy wrinkled her nose. "Okay, thanks for the gross visual," she said dryly.

She hesitated for a moment; what on earth could the Sheriff want to say to her? As far as she was concerned, they were done. Finally, her curiosity got the better of her.

With a huff, she relented. "Oh, all right. Are you coming?"

"Uh, I don't think I'm invited," Vi said cautiously.

Buffy contemplated dragging her friend along anyway just to annoy the Sheriff, but she ultimately decided against it. Whether she liked it or not, this was Vi's home now, and after she left, Vi would still have to live there.

She casually strolled over toward the 'throne', showing no haste in her steps. When she came within a few paces, she stopped and gazed at him expectantly.

Then Buffy bit back a laugh. She was so having a déjà vu moment; at least this time she knew the score. At least she thought she did. That was when his eyes met hers.

The air crackled with electricity. Buffy fervently hoped that it was a side effect of his blood, because the alternative did not make her happy. Besides, electricity would be so cool. She could totally work that. Of course, she would have to learn the past tense of 'smite'.

She couldn't help but grin as she imagined herself summoning lightning bolts. The grin faded, however, when she noticed that the Sheriff was still staring at her, and her expression turned into a grimace when she felt her body react to his intense look. The possibility of commanding lightning seemed less likely by the moment.

She looked at him sternly. "More talking, less gawking," she ordered, folding her arms across her chest in a move that was both defensive and self-conscious.

"Maybe we should take this somewhere more private?" Eric suggested, inclining his head toward the bar's back door, which she now knew led to his office.

Buffy laughed in disbelief. "You have serious control issues. You know that, right?" she said dryly.

He looked at her in silence, his face betraying nothing. And yet, she knew he was slightly amused. She blushed when she also discovered that he was feeling a little frisky. How did she know this?

She could feel his emotions.

A knot of dread formed in Buffy's stomach as she finally realized what he had been trying to tell her the previous night. The Sheriff wasn't trying to manipulate her into a blood bond. He already had one with her, the second she swallowed his blood. Hopefully it didn't mean that there had to be actual – gulp - bonding, though by the emotions flying through the air she wasn't so sure. She needed to get to the bottom of this now.

Before she could say another word, however, she heard something else that stopped her cold.

Buffy Summers?

It was no more than a whisper across the room, but she could hear it. Okay, there were definitely perks to swallowing the Sheriff's blood.

Buffy whipped around to find the owner of that voice. Her eyes locked on a startlingly familiar face near the front entrance.

Alastair Davies. Only he wasn't.

Buffy automatically began moving toward him. That's when he ran.

Bursting out of Fangtasia, Buffy took a quick look around. Alastair Davies – or Collins, as she knew him – was no where in sight.

"Sonofabitch," she muttered under her breath.

Still, she wasn't going to give up, not when she was so close. She raced down the street and found to her delight that she was moving faster than usual. Not vampire speed, but faster than she had ever run before. She couldn't help but smile as she put on another burst of speed.

"Over here."

Buffy immediately changed direction and headed toward the voice. To Buffy's surprise, she saw Pam standing in the shadows of the Fangtasia parking lot, restraining the runaway Watcher with one hand and covering his mouth with the other.

Buffy raised her eyebrows. "What- How did you know-"

"I didn't," Pam sniffed. "But a human running out of a vampire bar? Not the brightest idea. But then, he is just human."

By this time, Eric and Vi had joined them.

"How does he know who you are?" Eric immediately demanded.

"He, uh, works for my old employer," Buffy replied. She noticed the way Vi's eyes widened in surprise.

Eric frowned. "He's also been in the Fellowship church recently," he said flatly. "I'd recognize that stench anywhere."

To Buffy's dismay, she heard three sets of fangs extend as Pam's grip tightened. Collins was somehow affiliated with the Fellowship? Okay, so it wasn't exactly an earth-shattering move on the Council's part, but it made the current situation a lot more complicated. After all, even Vi was pissed off by this news.

"I need to talk to him," Buffy said firmly.

"What a coincidence," Eric said with a faint smile. "So do we."

This was not what Buffy wanted to hear. Getting information out of Collins would be hard enough without three vampires looming over them. Yet she was reluctant to take more drastic measures until she found out more about this blood bond thing. For all she knew, if anything happened to the Sheriff, something bad would happen to her as well.

"Can we take this somewhere more private?" Pam requested primly. "Some place where I don't actually have to be touching this filth?"

Eric nodded. "My office," he said.

To Buffy's chagrin, all three vampires and their unwilling captive began heading in that direction without another word. What really annoyed her, though, was the fact that it was the most logical place to go. With a sigh, she fell in step with them.

As soon as they entered Eric's office, Pam tossed Collins into a chair like he was a rag doll. Collins, for his part, tried to regain his composure. He looked up at his captors hatefully but said nothing.

Buffy stepped forward until she was right in front of him, partly because she wanted to take the lead and partly because she wanted to put herself in between him and the angry vamps. As much as she disliked the man – and she was talking dislike on an epic scale here – she wasn't going to let them touch him.

To her surprise and delight, no one objected. It was at that moment that she realized that the Sheriff wanted something from her. He wanted to stay on her good side, so much so that he was relinquishing power over the situation. She could feel it.

Things were starting to look up. She turned toward the elusive 'Mr. Davies'.

"Why did you run?" she asked.

Collins gave a snort of disbelief. "What else was I supposed to do when I saw the Slayer chatting with the local vampires?"

Ouch. Good point. "We're on the same side here," Buffy said slowly.

"Is that so?" he said scornfully, casting a disparaging glance at the vampires behind her. "Look at you. You're already in league with vampires again. Are you shagging them this time, too?"

Normally, she wouldn't be above knocking Collins around for this, but not in this crowd. Sometimes taking the higher ground really sucked.

Firmly ignoring the two sets of curious eyes on her back, she appraised Collins coolly. "No, I'm probably just the only thing that's standing in the way from them killing you," she said evenly.

Then she sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. This was no time to play who had the bigger stake; not when the girls were at risk.

"It doesn't have to be this way, you know," she said quietly.

Collins eyed her. "You've lost the cooperation of the Council. And even if you hadn't, you can be damned sure I wouldn't talk about our missions in front of vampires," he sneered.

Though Buffy hated to admit it, he had another good point. What was the world coming to? "These vamps aren't involved," she began.

"Oh no?" Collins cut in, swinging his gaze swung toward Vi. "Look at that."

Buffy narrowed her eyes at the disgust with which he said this.

"Is this really necessary?" Pam asked loudly. "Can't we just use the glamour on him and be done with it?"

"No," Buffy said sharply. She didn't know what effect it had on humans and she wasn't about to learn through trial and error.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Collins give an almost imperceptible sigh of relief. She narrowed her eyes. It could've just been that he didn't want to be under vampire mind control. Who did? More likely, however, he had information that he didn't want to share. The question was, with whom? The vamps? Or her?

She chose her next words very carefully. "You know I can help find the Potentials."

Collins threw his head back and laughed. "That's rich. Haven't you made enough of a mockery of the Calling? We know you dumped the girls, the instant you were done using them and your friends as foot soldiers. Leave the Potentials to us, and you can go back to your little self-involved world."

Buffy could hear Vi growling behind her. She was too busy letting her fist fly toward Collins' head to really be concerned, though; so much for the higher ground. She connected solidly, and before she knew it, he was knocked out cold.

She hadn't meant to, but in her anger she forgot she still had a little extra oomph. But hey, he still had his arms, so as far as she was concerned this little encounter was a success.

She stood back on her heels and studied Collins' prone form. He knew something. Short of beating him to a bloody pulp – which was sure to go over swimmingly in a room of angry vamps – she was running out of options. Collins was many things, but a snitch definitely wasn't one of them. She knew his type; he was trained for this. He would die before telling any secrets.

Feeling her hesitation, Eric stepped toward her. "There may be another way," he offered. "Something all parties could agree to?"

Pam, who knew him better than anyone, immediately caught on. "Sookie?" she guessed.

"Sookie," Eric confirmed.

"Huh? What's a 'sookie'?" Buffy asked, thoroughly confused. At first she thought it was some vampire thing, but one glance at Vi's equally bewildered look told her that it probably wasn't.

"Sookie is a person, not a 'what'," Eric explained patiently. "And she happens to be a telepath, a very good one at that."

Buffy couldn't help but laugh. "Really? Sookie?"

Vi couldn't resist. "What was that, Buffy?" she jibed. "You sound like two little Pomeranians or something."

"I love it!" Pam grinned. Then she pouted. "If only they didn't have such a terrible taste."

Buffy just stared at Pam, unsure if she was serious or not. The thought that she might be the namesake for a Pomeranian-shaped vampire snack was disturbing on so many different levels. Then she shook her head; there were more important things at stake here.

Did she have reservations about this 'plan'? Of course she did. Did she totally trust Eric? That was a big, fat no. Was there a chance that Collins' mind - or hers, for that matter - would let out more information about Slayers than was appropriate for vampires' ears? Yep. Did she want information from Collins about the Potentials more than all these misgivings? Definitely.

And of course she didn't forget that something had changed between her and the Fangtasia vamps. She had the power now, at least until she figured out what the Sheriff wanted from her or he decided that she wasn't worth it. Still, Buffy wasn't completely sold on the idea.

"Is she human?" she asked. At Eric's nod, she pursed her lips in thought. Then she gave him a crooked smile. "Does she like you?"

Eric's hesitation was all the answer Buffy needed. Well, that and the uneasy feeling he was projecting toward her.

"Get this Sookie," she said. "I want to meet with her first, though. And when she's reading Collins' mind, I get to ask the questions."

Eric pulled out his cellphone and dialed. Everyone else fell silent as he began speaking.

"Bill," he said curtly. "We need Sookie's services for a few hours."

Thanks to her supercharged hearing, Buffy could hear 'Bill' say that he didn't know where she was and that even if he did, she was still too injured to make the trip.

Eric smiled. "You mean you aren't aware of her whereabouts at all times?" he taunted. "I'll have to remember that."

Buffy rolled her eyes. Did he ever stop? To her surprise, she saw her expression echoed in Pam's face. The two shared a look of exasperation. Were they having a moment?

Swallowing her smile, Buffy turned back to Eric, whose delight at tormenting Bill was almost palatable to her. Bill, for his part, was very protective of Sookie. And he did not want Eric around her. She liked him already.

"Fine," Eric sighed. "Then we shall come to you. Expect us there in an hour."

Bill made some comment about meeting them at some local restaurant. From the sound of it, it was a humanrestaurant. That was weird. Maybe this Bill wasn't a vampire. And if this Bon Temps was as rural and non-vampy as it sounded, going there wouldn't be a bad thing, especially if she had to make a quick escape with her Council frenemy here. This plan was sounding better and better by the moment.

Eric smirked and hung up. "We must travel to Bon Temps," he announced. "Sookie is still not feeling well enough for travel."

The fact that he actually cared about this piqued Buffy's curiosity - and it made her slightly suspicious.

"How do I know this isn't a trap?" she asked matter-of-factly, though she really didn't think this was the case. Still, it needed to be said.

Pam burst out into peals of laughter at the mental image of the residents of Bon Temps trying to set a trap. "I like your sense of humor," she said with a smile.

Oddly, this was reassuring to Buffy. Still, she looked toward Eric.

"Which part?" he asked. "When this human recognized you and ran? Or when you refused to let us use the glamour on him? Or when my own subject refused to do my bidding and come here because Sookie is injured?"

"Alright, alright," Buffy said crossly, not sensing anything amiss except his own annoyance at this Bill. "Road trip."

Eric gave her a small smile. "We'll take my car," he said.

Maybe it was because it had been a long couple of days; maybe it was because she wanted to assert her dominance. Or maybe it was simply because it had been a long time since she had been able to mess with someone.

Whatever the reason, Buffy found herself holding her hand out for the car keys expectantly.

"Fine, but I'm driving."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 12: We're Off to See the Telepath

A/N: Thanks to my betas - deiticlast, leathon, murg, SariLane, and Satsuma, and thanks to Aimeeuth, eliseth, kerrykhat, Keshkreature, and tigerfanfrv for the recs. And last but not least, thanks to everyone who reviewed!

Also, based on the feedback I received, people's familiarity with the SVM books vs. True Blood seem evenly split, so I've decided to stick more closely to the books. I will explain the differences in either Author's Notes or within the story.

As I mentioned in the disclaimer way back in the prologue, I really won't be following the plot from either the books or the show, but this will affect the characters, most notably Sookie who is quirkier in the books. And of course Jessica, who doesn't exist in the books.

At first, Eric assumed that she was driving this poorly as a power play, to assert herself. After all, that's what motivated her to demand driving in the first place, wasn't it?

It also could've been because he had insisted that the 'Council lackey' – as she called him – be transported in the trunk. This clearly was an excellent move on his part, as the chances of getting pulled over for reckless driving were extremely high.

Or perhaps it was because she was still angry that her friend couldn't come, even though it was Violet's decision. The newly turned vampire did not want to risk being around all those humans, though now this explanation seemed suspect.

Any of those reasons would have been acceptable. But Eric sensed no smugness or anger in the Slayer, only blithe unawareness.

The bald truth was that she was just a terrible driver.

This alarmed him more than he would ever admit, because it meant that neither of them had control over the situation. This was chaos, plain and simple.

As she swerved to avoid a pothole only to narrowly avoid a jersey barrier, Eric tightened his already considerable grip on his seat. He was fairly certain his leather seats would permanently have hand-shaped imprints on them.

Buffy glanced over at him. "That's a pretty impressive chokehold you've got on the seat there," she observed, ignoring the anxiety that was emanating off of him in waves.

She thought she heard Eric say something in another language under his breath. From the intonation, it sounded like curse words. So not necessary. She knew she wasn't the world's best driver, but she wasn't thatbad.

"I was under the impression that Slayers have extraordinary coordination and enhanced reflexes," Eric said casually, as if he were commenting on the weather.

"We do. What does that have to do with driving?" Buffy replied flippantly.

Because she was in the process of passing someone on the right, only barely missing their front fender, she missed the way he almost imperceptibly clenched his jaw.

Instead of answering, Eric fixed his gaze on the road ahead. They drove in silence for awhile, except for when he gave the occasional direction. In his opinion, it was safer that way. Unfortunately, she didn't agree.

"You know, there was a time when I would be very uncomfortable with this," Buffy said, the silence finally getting to her.

Eric glanced away from the road to give her a look of amusement. "What? Driving in a car with a vampire or holding a human hostage and former colleague of yours in the trunk?"

"Umm... both?" she replied.

He shrugged. "Times change," was all he would say.

"You can say that again," Buffy muttered under her breath.

Then she bit her lip; something had been on her mind all night, and this seemed like as good a time as any to bring it up. Better, even, because she had a captive audience.

"So… tell me about our little blood bond."

Eric narrowed his eyes. So she knew that they shared one. He wasn't surprised, but he wasn't happy, either. These were not the conditions he envisioned when he explained the intricacies of the blood bond to her. He was in an untenable position, though.

He turned to look at her closely. "Do you feel anything - any different - after drinking my blood?" he asked, gauging her reaction.

"Other than the need to brush my teeth again? No," she replied casually, determined to give nothing away.

There was a moment of silence. Buffy knew he didn't believe her, but she didn't care. That wasn't the point.

Eric studied her for a moment before replying. He could dance around the issue – and it was very tempting - but what purpose would that serve, aside from aggravating her? No, he had to focus on his larger goal.

"Essentially? You can sense where I am, and I am attuned to you… and your feelings," he explained.

Buffy expected something like that, but it was still a shock to hear it. They were connected. He was tuned into Buffy Radio all the time. This put her at a distinct disadvantage.

Flying, hypnosis, and now this? The hybrids definitely got the short end of the vampire stick.

Just when she thought it couldn't get any worse, Buffy remembered that she drank Dracula's blood, too. That meant that she was bonded to him as well, because, hello, he was so obviously one of these vamps and not a hybrid. In fact, that was probably how Buffy managed to stake him that night in his castle; she could sense where he was going to materialize.

Great, two bonds. Of course, she had died since drinking Drac's blood, so maybe she was back down to one. Death was usually a pretty good way to end just about anything.

Unfortunately, she was reluctant to stake the Sheriff without good reason - and until she knew what the repercussions would be for Vi. Since she really didn't want to die again, either, she hoped there was another way to end this bond.

"Okay, now for the most important question: how do I get rid of it?" Buffy demanded.

"You can't," Eric replied bluntly. As she turned sharply to glare at him, taking the entire car with her, he decided to elaborate. "It's a mystical tie, but it may fade and disappear in time. Each bond is different. It depends on the amount of blood ingested, the strength of the vampire, and the strength of the human."

That information made Buffy feel a little better. "Well, here's hoping. In the meantime, will I explode or something if I get too far away from you? Or will you?" she asked hopefully.

She said this more to annoy him, as Dracula had obviously cleared out of Sunnydale without setting off a Buffy bomb.

When he shook his head, she sighed. "Too bad," she said. "Well, what about if one of us dies? Will the other?"

Eric raised an eyebrow at her line of questioning, but he answered again with a shake of his head.

Buffy pursed her lips, deep in thought. "So, other than you being a Peeping Tom of the mind and us having our very own LoJack, this blood bond is really no big," she summarized.

This got a reaction; he was miffed. Though he didn't intend to share his blood, Buffy could tell that it still wasn't something to be taken lightly, and it definitely rated higher than a 'no big'.

Still, he didn't show his irritation, which she grudgingly gave him props for when she felt how annoyed he was.

Then it hit her. He said that she would be able to sense where he was; he never mentioned anything about feeling his emotions, though, which meant that this normally wasn't a part of the bond.

For a moment, she wondered why she never felt Dracula's emotions but then quickly dismissed it. It probably had something to do with the distance between them. After all, this nifty little trick didn't start until she went to Fangtasia a few hours ago.

Anyway, it wasn't important. All that mattered was that she had one up on the Sheriff. She didn't even try to hide her grin.

Eric sensed her pleasure before he saw her smile, and it convinced him to broach a particularly sensitive part of the blood bond – in his own way, of course.

"Have you ever thought about us becoming lovers?" he asked casually. Because he was expecting the car to swerve dangerously, it didn't alarm him.

He knew that this was a dangerous path to tread, one that could end in a fiery crash that would even put immortality to the test. He simply couldn't resist, however.

Buffy didn't even try to formulate any words until she was sure she had the car under control. She had to admit, this wasn't totally unexpected; she had been getting the occasional feeling from him all night that wasdefinitely not PG-13. What had caught her off-guard was the way she initially reacted to his question - because it wasn't with disgust and loathing like she would hope. Nope, instead her traitorous body felt a thrill run through it. She did not need this right now.

"I'm sorry. I must be hallucinating," she said as calmly as she could. "Either that, or you have a death wish."

He leaned in closer to her, enjoying the reaction this got from her. "I only ask because sometimes a human feels a… connection to the vampire she's bonded to," he explained with an innocent expression, though there was no mistaking his meaning.

In some ways, Buffy was relieved by this information. At least these feelings could be explained away. Of course, it also meant that it might get worse or more… intense.

Then she narrowed her eyes. He could've exploited this much more than he did. In fact, by telling her, he pretty much guaranteed that nothing would ever happen. She didn't know what to make of this at first. She quickly settled on being deeply suspicious, however, because it was much safer than the alternative.

"You know, of course, this just begs the question; why are you telling me all this?" she asked.

"Because I'm learning that secrecy is not the best approach with you?" he offered blandly.

She gave a snort of derision. "Yeah right," she shot back, clearly not buying this. "You could've just let us go our separate ways and not run the risk of me staking your ass. What is it you really want?"

"You're leaving to find your girls," Eric stated matter-of-factly.

Buffy frowned, wondering what he was getting at. "And your point is?"

"Not every vampire will show restraint toward a Slayer in their territory," Eric explained. "If they know we share a blood bond and they have my assurance that you will not harm them, however, they will leave you alone. I may even be able to arrange limited help, though you may have to avoid revealing your identity."

"And if they had something to do with it?" she asked pointedly.

Eric smirked. "It's highly doubtful. Most of our kind doesn't even believe you exist. It's difficult to believe they would make such a coordinated effort," he replied.

Buffy fell silent. As much as she hated to admit it, he had a point; several, in fact. She was dreading the prospect of starting from scratch all over again. And then there was that little issue of time. Still, she knew he wasn't offering to help out of the goodness of his heart.

"And what do you want in return?" she asked warily.

"Once you find your girls, you will come back to Shreveport," he replied without hesitation. "The… skirmish last night, it was just the beginning."

"And so you want me to be your little attack Slayer? I don't think so," she said. "I protect innocent people. Period."

"Who do you think will be the first to suffer? Us?" Eric scoffed. "And what do you think will happen if vampires lose their rights?"

Damn the Sheriff and his use of logic, Buffy thought to herself with a scowl. It didn't mean she was convinced, though.

"And what about the blood bond? You wouldn't want me around to make sure that sticks, so you can keep tabs on me?" she asked.

Eric gave her a sidelong look. "It would have advantages for you, too," he reminded her.

"How very Vader-ish of you," Buffy commented dryly. "But I've heard this whole 'come to the dark side' routine before."

"My apologies. I thought you wanted to find your girls," he said lightly.

She sucked in her cheeks at the low blow. "I'll think about your offer," she replied in a tight voice.

They drove without speaking for a little while longer. Again, it was Buffy who broke the silence.

"No matter what I decide, I wouldn't count too much on this whole blood bond thing," she said nonchalantly. "I mean, I broke the bond with Dracula, and I think he had some magical mojo going on at the same time, so I sure as hell can break it with you."

She was banking on the fact that Drac was known among these vamps, too. Otherwise, it was wasted name-dropping. She wasn't disappointed.

With a smirk of immense satisfaction, Buffy saw Eric's eyes widen in surprise as he flinched ever so slightly, which was pretty much the vampire equivalent of falling off the chair. More importantly, she felt it.

Eric took a moment before replying. "Are you telling me that you drank Dracula's blood?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"Was that not clear?" Buffy said, raising an eyebrow in amusement at his sudden shift in demeanor.

Her amusement quickly died, however, as he turned to her with a gleam in his eye that made Buffy distinctly uncomfortable – and hot.

She could see that he had a thousand questions about this. Before he could ask a single one, however, her cell phone rang. She practically shouted in relief. This was about as far as she wanted to take this conversation, especially when he was looking at her that way.

The car gave a violent swerve as Buffy reached for her phone. Eric moved in a blur of motion, grabbing the steering wheel and steadying the car. At the same time, he plucked the phone out of her hand, despite her protests.

"Yes," he said into the phone.

Buffy rolled her eyes. He couldn't even muster a polite 'hello'? She heard Vi's voice and immediately grabbed for her phone.

Eric frowned as he held it out of her reach. "I'll put it on speakerphone," he offered as a compromise. After all, he was not going to sign his death warrant by letting her take one hand off the wheel.

Knowing that he would probably be able to hear anything Vi said in the close confines of the car anyway, she agreed.

"Hey Vi. What's up?" Buffy said, wondering why she was calling.

"Buffy, I think I figured out the Latin," Vi said, sounding agitated as she spoke. "I kept thinking about what you said about it being custard-y. I tried to think of all the Latin words that sounded like it, and then it came to me. Was it Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

"Yes!" Buffy exclaimed. "Vi, you're a genius! I know your Watcher made you learn Latin, but how did you ever get that from 'custard'?"

There was a pause on the other side. "It's a very famous quote, actually. And it always stuck out in my mind because…" Vi hesitated. "Buffy, it means, 'Who guards the Guardians' or 'Who watches the Watchers?'"

The car gave a shudder as Buffy partially slammed on the brake at this revelation. Luckily, they were off the highway by this time and it was late at night, so there wasn't anyone else around.

"Buffy?!"

"Yeah, I'm here Vi," Buffy replied quietly. "I- thanks."

She quickly ended the conversation, needing to think about what this meant. She barely ever registered the directions Eric was giving her, not until he pointed toward a restaurant and indicated that she should pull into the parking lot.

Merlotte's.

They had arrived at their destination. Buffy stopped the car with a violent jerk. Before she even had a chance to fully put the car in park, Eric snatched the keys out of the ignition and swiftly exited the car.

Buffy, however, didn't move. She felt a knot form in her stomach. She had to know Collins' secrets; she had no doubt about that now. Part of her was afraid of what she'd find out, though. And an even bigger part was worried about what she would do when she did.

Suddenly, a cool breeze washed over her. She looked up in surprise, only to see that Eric had opened the car door for her. This night couldn't get any more surreal.

Somewhat reluctantly, Buffy got out of the car. She looked at Merlotte's for one last second before she began walking purposefully toward the front door. There was no turning back now.

Sookie entered Merlotte's and looked around nervously, as if she expected someone to jump out at her any moment. But no, there was just the usual late-night crowd there, with nothing more alarming than the occasional hoot and holler from her brother Jason's friends.

She wasn't normally this jumpy, but she had good reason to be tonight. Bill had called an hour ago - interrupting her girls' night with Tara - to tell her that the Sheriff needed her 'services'. Well, didn't that just make her feel like a hooker?

Still, here she was. What could Eric possibly want from her now?

Spotting Bill sitting at a table by himself in the far corner, she quickly walked over to him and slid into an empty chair.

"Do you know what this is about?" she whispered.

Sookie didn't know why she was whispering; it just felt right. It definitely wasn't because anyone was within earshot. Though folks in town had warmed up to 'Vampire Bill', as they called him, they were obviously giving him an extra wide berth tonight.

She didn't blame them. When she first met Bill, she was ecstatic that she couldn't hear his mind. It was blissful, being with someone without knowing their every thought. Now, however, she would give her eye teeth to know what was going on behind that grim expression of his.

"No," he replied unhappily. "But if it involves Eric, I am sure it is nothing good."

He set his lips in a thin line, unwilling to say anything more.

Sookie frowned; she was hoping that he would give her a little more reassurance than that – because that was a very boyfriend thing to do, or so she imagined - but apparently he was fresh out tonight.

Perhaps sensing her disappointment, Bill put his arm around her. Ooh, and the store is open for business again.

Deciding to take what she could get – for now – Sookie settled back into her seat and waited. And waited. Whoever said patience was virtue never had to deal with vampires.

Her own well had just about run dry when the front door opened. In walked Eric - with a blonde that definitely was not Pam.

The whole bar seemed to take notice of their entrance, the buzz of conversation immediately quieting down as everyone stared at Merlotte's two newest customers.

Sookie was no exception; she, too, was staring openly at them. The two made quite the striking pair actually. Where Eric was all coolness and calm, this girl was fire and intensity - and human, if her tan was any indication.

That's why Sookie was shocked when she realized that she wasn't picking up a single thought from the girl – not a single blip.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 13: A Blonde in the Hand

A/N: Sorry for such a long delay between chapters! RL has been very, very demanding lately. I've also fallen behind on replying to reviews (again, abject apologies!). I really appreciate that fact that people are taking the time to read and review this, as well as recommend it (thanks pemilo, firebreather, and GoldenDarkness!).

Also, just a quick note (and possibly a spoiler, so beware!). One of my betas and a reviewer told me aboutDracula Night, a short story by Charlaine Harris set in the Sookie verse. Apparently all the vamps adore Dracula, especially Eric. He throws a b-day party for him every year in the hopes that Drac will show. We're talking Fanboy Eric here. Obviously, I couldn't resist incorporating this into my story. :)

And last but definitely not least, thanks to my betas – deiticlast, leathon, murg, SariLane, and satsuma.

Buffy surveyed the scene before her, fully aware of all the stares and the hushed silence. She hadn't made an entrance like this since – well, ever. Strangely enough, the total weirdness of it helped her relax a little. Weird she could handle.

She turned to Eric with an amused smile. "Do you always make this kind of impression? Because I've gotta tell you, it's kinda creepy."

Eric did not reply. He was still reeling from her revelation that she drank Dracula's blood – so much so that he didn't even bother to consider her utter lack of deference to him in front of the humans. Instead he simply gestured toward the table where Sookie and Bill were sitting.

It really wasn't necessary, though. Buffy had honed in on the lone vampire in the crowd of humans the second she walked into Merlotte's – Bill, presumably, which meant that the girl sitting next to him was Sookie.

Bill wasn't the only supernatural one in the room, though. Buffy's gaze flitted over to the bartender. There was something about him…

He knew she sensed it, too. He gave her a deer in the headlights look before he began busying himself behind the bar – a little too much. Because he didn't seem to be a threat, she turned her focus back to Bill and Sookie, quickly assessing them as she walked toward them.

She immediately gave Bill major points for making them come to Bon Temps. Sookie looked like she was recently on the wrong end of a troll hammer; definitely not travel ready.

Even through the cuts and bruises, however, it was obvious that Sookie was a pretty blonde about her age with curves to die for. And she was staring at Buffy as if she had four heads. Bill, too, looked uneasy, tightening his arm around Sookie protectively as they got closer.

Buffy didn't blame them; she wouldn't trust anyone that showed up with Eric, either. In fact, their reactions helped ease her own lingering doubts about coming here. Of course, at the end of the day, they were still under Eric's control.

Sookie gaped in disbelief as she watched the two blondes approach her and Bill. She heard what the girl said when she first walked in; the whole bar did, actually. It was just that everyone else wasn't around vampires enough to know how surprising the girl's comment really was – or Eric's lack of reaction to it. Sookie did, however. No one talked to the Sheriff of Area 5 that way, did they?

She knew Bill was shocked, too, if his death grip was any indication. This did not make her feel any better; not to mention the fact that she was starting to lose circulation in her arm.

Leaning into him for comfort just as much as to get feeling back, she whispered, "She's human… right?"

The question sounded ridiculous, even to Sookie's ears, and she was the one who asked it. Telling a vampire from a human should not be difficult. It was like telling whether it was night or day out. You just gave a good look out the window.

Yet here was this tiny, tan knockout with a mind as closed to Sookie as any vampire. Even a shape shifter like Sam gave her a little mental static. Besides, from what she had gathered from Bill, a vampire would never let a shifter or werewolf talk like that, like they were equals.

Dusk. This girl is dusk, Sookie thought to herself, inordinately pleased with her ability to continue her night and day analogy. She obviously needed a vacation.

Bill simply nodded in response to her question, too intent on studying Eric's companion to speak. He had seen the way she had immediately sized both him and Sam up. What truly alarmed him, however, was the stillness in which she did so. Clearly, she was no stranger to the supernatural, nor was she intimidated by it. She was human, but not like any human he had ever encountered before.

As soon as they reached the table, Eric immediately took control of the situation. "Sookie, Bill," he said. "This is Buffy."

"Hi," Buffy said, giving her best non-creepy smile while trying to think of anything that wasn't Slayer-related.

After all, freaking them out wouldn't exactly endear her to them, and she was going to have to trust them with the big Slayer secret. Besides, she just didn't do glower-y and mysterious.

Sookie just stared for a moment before her manners took over. "Hi," she finally greeted with a weak smile.

No handshake, though. She barely understood vampire etiquette; as if she had any idea what to do in thissituation. She looked at Bill, curious to see what he would do. To her disappointment, however, he just gave a little nod of acknowledgement.

"Well," Eric said pleasantly. "As much I enjoyed indulging you by meeting here, you know that this in not an appropriate place for us to… talk."

And it wasn't. All four of them knew it. Eric had only agreed to it for Buffy's benefit, correctly thinking that it would help convince her to come here.

"And where would a more proper setting be?" Bill asked slowly, though he could guess what the answer would be.

Sure enough, Eric immediately replied, "Sookie's house."

Buffy narrowed her eyes at the glee she felt rolling off of Eric. That vamp definitely enjoyed being a button pusher; and it worked. Bill frowned in disapproval.

Before he could protest, however, Sookie cut in.

"That's fine," she said firmly, ignoring the look Bill gave her.

She just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible so that they could get Eric and the mysterious blonde out of their lives, causing as few problems as possible in the meantime. Besides, she could always just uninvite the Sheriff if she needed to.

"Fine," Bill replied curtly. "We will meet you there."

Buffy felt Eric's desire to goad Bill a little more. Tired of the puppet master making them dance, she decided to cut him off at the strings.

"Do you want me to drive again?" she asked with an innocent expression on her face.

Instead of giving any reaction to her question, Eric merely gave her a small, amused smile. The Slayer certainly kept things interesting. He strode toward the door without another word.

With a roll of her eyes, Buffy followed in suit.

Sookie made no movement to follow; she just watched them for a few seconds. The second the tiny blonde walk in, Sookie had been prepared to distrust her. She came with Eric, didn't she? And then there was the pesky fact that she couldn't read her. But the way she talked to Eric without any fear, almost as if she were taunting him… Sookie was tempted to give the girl a medal.

Sookie stared at the unconscious man currently tied to a dining room chair in the middle of her living room. She supposed things like this shouldn't surprise her anymore, but it did -from the minute she first spied the man in Eric's trunk to this moment now where they were just waiting for the guest of honor to awake.

It was pretty clear what Sookie's job was. No one had told her what she was supposed to find out, though. Come to think of it, no one was talking at all.

It almost seemed as if Eric was stepping back to let Buffy explain why they were there. This fascinated Sookie, especially since there seemed to be a constant power struggle going on between the two. For instance, when they first entered the room, Sookie and Bill took the love seat. Buffy sat in the furthest corner of the couch. Eric did not take the other corner, though; he sat right next to Buffy. By the expression on her face, Buffy was not happy with this, and the innocent look Eric gave her only made her scowl deepen.

Still, Sookie couldn't help but think that for once the big vampire might have bitten off more than he could chew. No matter what he did, Buffy held her own, even as the Viking vampire towered over her.

He definitely looked like he wanted to take a bite, though. In fact, Eric was looking at Buffy the way he looked at her when she and Bill went to Fangtasia that first time.

Eric wasn't one to leave a woman out in the cold, though. Sookie watched as the blonde vampire looked back and forth between her and Buffy, like a child trying to decide which shiny present to open first. How thoughtful.

What was that old adage? A blonde in the hand is worth two in the bush? A small giggle escaped past her lips. She reigned in her amusement, however, as she felt Bill and Eric's scrutinizing gaze fall on her like she was cracking up or something.

She harrumphed and leaned back into Bill. She was sitting in her living room with two vampires, one mysterious girl, and one unconscious man who was tied to Gran's dining room chair. All in all, she thought she was handling the situation pretty well.

Sookie's laugh startled Buffy out of her thoughts. She had been trying to think of a way to explain who she was without sounding like she was going to murder Bill in his sleep, while at the same time trying to prevent Sookie from finding out by reading her mind. It was like she was talking in code to herself.

Giving up for a moment, Buffy sat back, absently brushing her hair off her shoulder as she looked around the room. It definitely wasn't her style, but it had that nice, homey feel to it. After spending so much time on the streets of Shreveport or in vamp hangouts, it was a welcome change.

Her visual tour was cut short, however, as she felt Eric's eyes on her. It was kind of hard not to notice, actually; he was practically looming over her.

Buffy sucked in her cheeks in annoyance. Eric had been acting really weird ever since their little joy ride. Coupled with the fact that she was minutes away from finding out what was on Collins' mind, literally, she found herself a little short on patience.

"Okay, here's a tip. If you want to start with the trust building, stop staring at my neck," she said snarkily.

He ignored this and looked closely, fascinated by what he saw. "You've been bitten by a vampire. More than once," he stated matter-of-factly. He raised his hand toward her neck, just stopping short of tracing the scars with his fingers.

Buffy's hand instinctively flew up to her neck. "It's kind of an occupational hazard," she said coolly.

At this, Bill abruptly stood up. "Eric, I need to speak with you in private," he said, ignoring Sookie's obvious confusion. "Now."

Without waiting for a response, Bill headed for the front door. Eric silently rose from the couch and followed.

Buffy knew what they were going to talk about, but she didn't try to stop them or join them. In her mind, it just made things easier if Eric made with the explaining. Maybe Bill would surprise her, but on the whole Buffy didn't think any vamp would take a meet and greet with the Slayer very well.

Sookie looked at Bill and Eric's retreating back, wondering what the joke was and why everyone was in on it except for her.

Bill walked out onto Sookie's front lawn with grim determination. As soon as he thought that they were a suitable distance, he rounded on Eric, who was ambling toward him as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"Who is she?" Bill asked sternly.

Eric gave him a small smile. "Surely you know, Bill? Or at least you have an idea?" he prodded.

"I would assume that she was your whore, except for the obvious disdain she has for you," Bill said lightly.

He said this mostly to irk Eric, though it did seem like the most plausible explanation. Why else would she say that vampire bites were occupational hazards? And more importantly, why would Eric waste his time assisting a human like that? This made him uneasy, just as the human did, which is why he called Eric out here. Bill did not want to play any more games; he wanted answers – now.

Eric shook his head. "Try again," he said calmly. "Think… fairy tales."

If Bill had any color in his face, it would have drained away at this. He knew what Eric was referring to; perhaps deep down he even had his own suspicions before this. It certainly made sense, the way she acted, the way she spoke – but he still had a difficult time believing it.

"She's the Slayer," Bill said slowly. At Eric's smile, his eyes sparked with anger. "What kind of game are you playing here? I know that you enjoy taking risks no sane vampire would ever consider, but the Slayer? Have you completely lost your mind?"

Eric leveled a cool gaze at Bill, who immediately set his lips in a thin line and said nothing further. Regardless of his personal feelings, Eric was his Sheriff. Nevertheless, this was madness. Though the Slayer obviously was not the savage killer from the tales, she should just be left alone.

In the back of his mind, however, he knew why Eric would do such a thing. Although their kind had avoided the Slayer in the past, the world had changed since their existence became common knowledge. The Slayer could potentially come after them now or, inversely, those vampires who did not know of her existence before could try to kill her, to strike the head off the snake.

Yes, Bill could see how assisting the Slayer could be useful, an opportunity even. And of course Eric would take it. But it also had the potential to become disastrous. And what would happen if the Slayer did kill one of their kind, or vice-versa? He wanted no part in this.

"She has a blood bond with Dracula," Eric said thoughtfully. He didn't bother to mention his own blood bond with the Slayer. Why spoil the surprise?

Bill blinked in surprise. "That is… unusual. And intriguing," he admitted a little reluctantly. He could see why this would get Eric's curiosity – the fact that the Slayer was bonded to Dracula would get any vampire's attention.

"Isn't it, though?" Eric mused aloud, more to himself than anything else.

"You want her," Bill stated flatly.

Eric just looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to say something not quite so obvious.

Bill bit back a sigh of exasperation. "Even though not all of our kind will treat the Slayer as – cordially – as you have," he said pointedly.

"I've thought about that," Eric nodded seriously. "It could cause problems."

Bill had decidedly mixed feelings about this. While he felt Eric was personally endangering them all by playing this dangerous game, he was relieved that the Sheriff's focus might not be on Sookie anymore.

"So why risk it? I don't understand," he said carefully.

"You don't need to," Eric said with a slight smile. He turned to walk back into the house but stopped to look back. "Oh, and Bill? I wouldn't mention the 'whore' part. She tends to get… cranky."

With that, he strode into the house without another backward look.

After the two vampires left, an awkward silence filled the room. Buffy and Sookie looked at each other, neither one knowing what to say. Besides, they were both too busy to talk.

Buffy was trying to keep the telepath out of her thoughts, while Sookie was doing her darnedest to read them. When Sookie realized that she was on the verge of straining something, she gave up.

"Why can't I read your mind?" she finally blurted out.

Buffy nearly jumped for joy. There were just some things in her mind that no one should see. It made her wonder, though. "You can't?" she asked curiously. "At all?"

Sookie shook her head. "No, nothing," she admitted.

"It must be nice," Buffy said knowingly. "I was a telepath for a few days, and it totally sucked. Let me just say that the teenage male mind is a scary place."

"How were you a telepath just for a few days?" Sookie asked eagerly. She had never met another telepath before. "I can't ever remember not being one."

"It's a long story," Buffy said vaguely. "Anyway, I don't know how you deal with the noise all the time. It almost drove me crazy."

Sookie frowned. Buffy clearly didn't want to explain any more, but she was dying of curiosity. She decided to pick her battles.

"Is that why I can't read your mind? Because I would think it would be just the opposite," she surmised.

Buffy just shrugged. She had a few theories, none of which she wanted to share at that moment. Luckily, she didn't have to; the boys were back.

Eric walked in and sat down right next to her again. Bill came in a few seconds later and sat next to Sookie, putting a protective arm around her. Buffy noticed that he was now practically boring holes into her head, as if she might freak out at any moment and he needed to be prepared.

Seeing he didn't have her attention, Eric purposefully cleared his throat. "How hard did you hit him?" he asked mildly, nodding to Collins' unconscious form.

Buffy frowned at the insinuation. "Hey, I know my own strength," she protested. "If anything, it's your fault. Your blood made me go all wonky. I don't know what you're complaining about anyway. It made the trip to Bon Temps much easier, didn't it?"

Bill gave a small jerk of surprise at the mention of Eric's blood, but Sookie barely registered it. She hadn't listened to any of Eric and Buffy's exchange actually. Her focus was on the man in the chair. Seeing as he had the only mind she could read, she heard his thoughts the instant he started to swim back into consciousness – probably even before he knew himself that he was coming around.

It was all extremely foggy, but she could hear him struggle to remember where he was and why his head and jaw hurt. She heard him curse as he vaguely recognized Buffy and Eric's voices. He was British, and he was angry.

This is all that scrubber of a Slayer's fault.

She heard how he caught a word or two of conversation. He gave a mental start when he heard the words 'Bon Temps', however.

Bugger. The last thing I need is to come in contact with the Stackhouse telepath.

Sookie let out a surprised yelp. Bill, Eric, and Buffy all looked at her questioningly.

"What's a 'slayer'?" Sookie demanded. "And how does he know who I am?"


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 14: The Not So Great Revelation

A/N: Once again, sorry for the serious delays. To sum up: hard drive - crashed; my fics - into the black void; me - demoralized and unhappy. And on top of that, RL is really crazy right now, and it will be for the next, oh say nine months, and then for 18 years after that. ;) I'm going to do my best to update, but it may be slow for awhile. Thanks for hanging in there!

As always, thanks to my awesome betas, deiticlast, leathon, murg, SariLane, and Satsuma, to you for all the reviews, and to aygul, clockworkorange, and ebelitha for the recs!

The room was absolutely silent as everyone digested Sookie's words. It was probably for the best that Collins was still in a state of semi-consciousness, because he would have found three deadly gazes aimed in his direction.

Buffy was the first to speak. After all, this was all about her, wasn't it? Although if the Council knew about Sookie…

It made sense that they would have an idea of the players in the supernatural world, whether they tied directly to the Slayer or not. But Sookie in particular? Why? Her mind whirled with theories, questions, guesses – and none of them were good.

"I'm a slayer. THE Slayer, actually," she explained distractedly, her eyes never leaving Collins as she tried to figure this new puzzle out.

Sookie blinked in confusion. Was it just her, or did that clear up almost nothing? She could see that Buffy was deep in thought, but frankly, all things considered, she didn't care.

"But what does that mean?" she pressed.

"Cliff notes version? If it's supernaturally evil or evilly supernatural, then I kill it," Buffy summed up.

At first, Sookie almost laughed. How the heck could Buffy kill anything, let alone something with supernatural strength? Then again, there had to be a reason Eric was deferring to her. That's when the full implication of what Buffy said hit her and her eyes widened with alarm.

"Wait, what if they aren't evil? What if they're just… supernatural?" she asked.

At the same time, she scooted closer to Bill, though she wasn't sure whether it was to draw comfort or protect him. She also glanced up at him to see if she was the only one alarmed here. To her frustration, he had that stoic look on his face again. Honestly, she was getting sick and tired of not knowing what the heck he was thinking in times like these. They were going to have to work out some hand signals or something.

Buffy tore her gaze away from Collins and looked at Sookie. Not surprisingly, the telepath looked freaked. She shook her head, forcing herself to focus. First things first, time to make with the explaining. Then she could let her imagination – and maybe her fists – run wild.

"Honestly? If they don't kill humans, I've got no problems with them," she said slowly, inadvertently casting a quick glance over at Eric as she spoke, who merely gave his most angelic look back at her. She gave a snort of derision. "Please, just because I drank some of your blood doesn't mean I'm going to start drinking the Kool Aid, too."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Eric said with a small smile.

Despite herself, and the situation, Buffy rolled her eyes in amusement. He definitely kept things interesting, didn't he?

Because they were looking at each other, they didn't notice Bill's tiny jerk of surprise. Eric had a blood bond with the Slayer? Bill had severely underestimated the Sheriff, something which was extremely unsettling. Still, he said nothing, merely continuing to observe.

Sookie felt Bill flinch and wondered at it. Why did this, of all things, get a reaction from him? She had drunk from Bill. Sure, it made it more interesting because Buffy was supposed to kill Eric, not get healing from him, but it was hardly the most astonishing revelation of the night.

Knowing she wouldn't get any answers from Bill – at least not now – she looked over at Buffy with great interest. Since she had first met her a whole half hour ago, she had changed her opinion of the mysterious blonde no less than a million times. And now that she knew Bill was safe – mostly – she was really interested in learning more.

"How do you become a slayer? Are you 'made', like vampires? Or are you born one, like shifters?" she asked eagerly.

Buffy hesitated; she was a little reluctant to get into the whole 'one girl, the world is older than you think' speech. It bored her the first time, and now it just left a bitter taste in her mouth. She would have to tell Sookie something, though; it would help her understand Collins' thoughts. She took a deep breath.

"I'm one girl in a long line of girls who's been 'chosen', given special powers to fight the baddies," she said slowly. "We're called, one at a time, fighting the good fight until we're eventually killed. Then the next one's called."

Sookie gasped. She hadn't expected that. It was so… brutal. She immediately felt a wave of sympathy for her. And she thought being a telepath was difficult.

"Why just one girl at a time? Why couldn't the people handing out powers give it to a bunch of girls at once?" she asked.

Buffy looked down for a moment before answering. When she looked up at Sookie, there was a trace of sadness around her eyes for a split second before it disappeared completely.

"That's the million dollar question, isn't it? We tried doing that, but…" she trailed off for a moment before shrugging as casually as possible, though the movement felt stiff and contrived to her. "It didn't take."

Sookie didn't need to read Buffy's mind to know that there was a story behind that – one that obviously didn't end well. Though she was dying of curiosity, she didn't feel like it wasn't any of her business to ask. Besides, she had a dozen more questions running through her mind. Before she could ask a single one, however, Buffy spoke again.

"Did I miss anything?" she asked, her voice cold and hard as she rose to her feet.

Sookie was startled at the change in tone. Then she realized that Buffy was talking to Collins. She had been so focused on what Buffy had been saying, she must've unconsciously blocked him out of her mind. Now she could hear him trying to get his bearings, still mumbling bits of what she presumed to be British swears in his mind as he assessed the situation as best he could.

Collins cracked open his eyes, immediately giving Buffy a baleful look. "You're bloody right you did," he spat out. "You forgot to add that part where the Slayer forgets her duty and sleeps with enemy - repeatedly."

Sookie blinked in surprise, thinking at first that she had simply heard the man incorrectly. Bill must've doubted it as well, because he gave his second flinch of the night, possibly making it a world record. But Buffy's answering scowl told them both, however, that their hearing was just fine.

A person who was supposed to kill demons that also slept with them? It sounded like a soap opera – one that she would probably watch, curled up on her couch in her pj's with a big bowl of popcorn.

And Sookie thought she was dying of curiosity before.

The room was still silent after the man's scathing reply. Sookie saw her opportunity to ask another question – and she took it.

"What does he have to do with all this?" she blurted out, inwardly congratulating herself that a question involving vampire sex didn't accidentally worm its way out. Of course, with the way Buffy was still glaring at the man, it wasn't too difficult to exercise a little self-preservation.

At the sound of the unfamiliar voice, Collins whipped his head around to stare at Sookie. Surprised recognition dawned in his eyes, though he quickly tried to mask it.

In a room with two vampires and a slayer, however, it was a futile attempt. Buffy's eyes narrowed suspiciously while both Bill and Eric stood and took a menacing step toward him, Bill purposefully putting himself in between the human and Sookie.

Sookie could hear the man gulp in fear, and honestly, she didn't blame him. She gave a start, however, when she realized that he wasn't afraid of Eric or Bill. He was afraid of Buffy, or at least of what she would find out.

She peered around Bill to look more closely at the stranger. She could hear him chanting something over and over again inside his mind. Though the words sounded foreign, almost like a spell, she suspected that it was more to keep her out than anything else. And it was working.

Buffy watched this exchange closely, wondering what Sookie was hearing. She knew better than to ask, though. No, her job was to allow Sookie to do hers. Since Collins obviously recognized the telepath, there was no use beating around the bush, either.

"Slayers are guided by an organization, one that he belongs to. We had a, er, falling out, though. And, well, can you tell the trust is gone?" she said with a smirk as she eyed the ropes binding him. Then she grew serious. "But all the girls who are like me, or at least have the potential to be once I die, are missing. And I think he knows what's happened to them."

"And you want me to find out," Sookie finished, to which Buffy nodded. "Well, first you'll have to get him to stop chanting. He's saying some phrase over and over again in his head so I can't get in."

Sookie looked at Collins again, who was glaring hatefully at her. Too bad she was used to it, being the resident freak. It didn't have nearly the effect he probably hoped it would.

Eric was also studying Collins with interest. The human had to realize what an untenable position he was in. By not speaking at all, it only made his actions seem very suspicious. And yet he was clearly showing his hostility toward them. And Eric was glad. It would make this whole experience much more interesting. So he waited patiently, staying quiet to see what the Slayer would do.

With a grim expression, Buffy walked up to Collins until she was directly in his face. "Then I'll start," she said. "I think that you not only know exactly what happened to the Potentials, I think you had something to do with it. So what, are you taking them all back to merry old England so you can set them up with Watchers again – and away from me?"

Collins made no movement, gave no indication if she was correct – not that she expected anything else. She thought that this was the most plausible explanation; though why this rated for a slayer dream, she didn't know, and that made her uneasy. She plowed on, determined to get to the bottom of this, no matter what.

"Makes sense why you wouldn't tell me. But seriously, you guys need power that badly? Couldn't you just, you know, run for office or something? Or better yet, start a transnational corporation?" she said glibly.

Then she waited… and waited.

"We're taking care of the Potentials. That's all you need to know," Collins finally said before setting his lips in a thin line.

Eric raised an eyebrow at this. Perhaps the human did realize his position after all. Pity.

Buffy pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Then why were you leaving Shreveport?" she wondered aloud. At Collins' shocked look, she gave a small, satisfied smile. "What, you didn't think anyone would figure that out, Uncle Al? Not quite as covert with the ops as you thought, huh?"

"It looks like you're not as daft as I thought," he conceded, though it obviously pained him to say even this.

Buffy rolled her eyes. This conversation was going nowhere fast. A quick look to Sookie told her that Collins' mind was still closed, too.

Buffy was stuck. She still wasn't convinced that violence would break the man. He was like a soldier in that way. Not to mention the fact that she didn't want to shed blood, as Bill and Eric already looked pretty thirsty.

No, the best way to get to him was psychologically – and she knew the best way to do it, too. He obviously had one obvious hot button when it came to her. And, as far as he knew, she and Eric were together. She could use that.

Still, she hesitated as she glanced over at the blonde vamp. It wasn't a question of whether he would play along. She really didn't have any doubts about that. Nope, it was more a question of whether she could do it. But if it would give her some answers…

Mentally steeling herself, she slowly walked over to Eric, all the while keeping her eyes on Collins.

"Where did we go wrong?" she asked him in mock contemplation. "Was it when you tried to capture me when I was in Faith's body and I beat you senseless? Or was it when Angel kicked your asses? Or maybe it was when I quit being a puppet to the Council's petty little dictatorship?"

She quickly sidled up to Eric, resting one hand lightly on his chest. If he was surprised, he didn't show it.

Stupid, arrogant vampire, she thought. And what the heck did he do before he was a vampire, because wow.

Eric looked down at her, a small smile playing on his lips. He knew exactly what she was doing; she was using him to get to the human. Did he mind? Not one bit. Was he going to take advantage of the situation as much as he possibly could? Of course.

He put his hands on her hips and pulled her flush against him, enjoying the way she let out a small squeak of surprise. And yet she didn't pull away. No, instead she gazed up at him, allowing her hand to travel further upward until it rested on his shoulder. He returned the gesture, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear before letting his fingers trail down her neck. His eyes widened slightly in delight as he felt her pulse race under his fingertips and heard her slight intake of breath.

Buffy frowned as she felt herself react to his touch. Was she enjoying this? That was… really disturbing.

It's just the blood bond, she rationalized.

Deep down, she knew that this wasn't totally true. As if she would let something like that overpower her free will. Of course, that meant that a part of her was enjoying the up close and personal time with the Sheriff. And that was just unacceptable.

She mentally shook herself. Now was so not the time to worry about this. Focusing on the task at hand, she twisted around so that her back was to Eric and faced Collins, who was grimacing in disgust. It probably didn't hurt that Eric wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her backside against him.

"Nah," she said lightly. "You seem to be stuck on my choice in lovers."

As if on cue, she heard the faint click as Eric's fangs extended. And was he smelling her hair?

Okay, enough was enough.

She pushed back against him in warning - and instantly regretted it. Yep, because now she could feel his excitement, both literally and emotionally through the blood bond, which probably meant that the arrogant vamp could tell that she wasn't exactly unaffected by all this, either.

She could only hope that this little display was getting to Collins as much as it was getting to her.

During this entire exchange, Sookie kept her eyes on Collins. Well, almost the whole time. She did sneak one tiny glance at the two blondes, but she quickly looked away with a sudden need to fan herself.

Besides, Buffy's... tactics were working. Sookie could feel the man's mind slip and falter as he watched the two. It looked almost as if he loathed the sight before him and yet couldn't look away.

Suddenly, a single thought burst in Sookie's head.

I wish you were in the alley instead of Violet, he spat out hatefully in his mind.

This seemed to open the floodgates, and Sookie was suddenly overwhelmed with a rush of images. She could see why the guy was chanting – he was a broadcaster. Sookie saw everything he was thinking in high definition.

There was a girl in Fangtasia, a red head. He was stalking her, preparing to attack her. She disappeared as she left the bar, however, and by the time he caught up, she had ducked down an alley. He quickly followed but stopped when he saw that she was being attacked by vampires – though Sookie had never seen vampires that looked like them before. She heard him think that this just made his own job easier and left her to die.

Then the images abruptly stopped as the chanting filled her head again. But it was too late.

"Who's Violet?" she asked.

Buffy jumped at this, breaking out of Eric's embrace as she automatically took a step toward Sookie. "She's one of the girls I was looking for," she replied slowly, wondering where this was leading.

"He was sent to kill her," Sookie blurted out. "But she was attacked by vampires so he didn't have to."

All the color drained from Buffy's face at these words. She forced herself to remain still as she looked at Collins, who merely looked defiant.

"You're- you're trying to kill them," she whispered, still unwilling to believe that the Council would ever take such measures. "But why?"

Collins didn't answer; he didn't have to. She saw the answer written on his face. Because of her. Because they really did want power that badly.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 15: If Death Wishes Were Horses

A/N: So, here it is - the next chapter (finally!). Big thanks to my fantastic betas, deiticlast, leathon, murg, SariLane, and satsuma, for sticking with me and providing invaluable feedback.

And thank you so much for all the reviews and to bunnyears, LIGHThearted, Luna, moonstarsfu, Persefone, Rapsody, and Tally for the recs! The past few months have been really tough RL and writing-wise, but your reviews and recs gave me some much needed motivation/inspiration, especially when I wasn't sure I would ever get this chapter done.

Buffy was rooted to the spot. She was afraid to speak, move, breathe, for fear that it would just bring her one step closer to killing Collins. As it was, her palms felt uncontrollably itchy as she stared at him. It didn't help that he was sneering at her, almost as if he was daring her to do something.

Luckily, Sookie spoke up, and the sound of her voice broke Buffy out of her trance.

"Why would he kill all the girls like you? Wouldn't that, you know, defeat the purpose – his purpose? Why would he want to make it so there were no more slayers?" she asked in confusion. "And that's not even possible, is it?"

Taking a deep breath, Buffy forced herself to look at the telepath – and away from Collins – to concentrate on what Sookie had just said. She had brought up some very good questions. Buffy knew the answer, too; she knew it the instant she realized what the Council's plan was.

"I don't think it's possible, but I don't think they're trying to get rid of all of them anyway. Just the ones that were on the Hellmouth - with me," she explained quietly, though her voice shook with emotion.

It made sense, didn't it? They were making sure that there would be no more 'mistakes' like her. Why else would they be doing this?

They were probably content enough to leave her alone as long as she was on the Hellmouth doing her job by herself. But now after the Great Revelation and the collapse of Sunnydale, courtesy of her and the Watcher-less Potentials, it wouldn't be crazy for them to think that their power over the Slayer line had been compromised beyond repair.

Not to mention the fact that with only who knew how many Council members left, there was probably a power vacuum – and a new playbook, made by members like Collins here who were more willing to kill innocents for the so-called 'greater good'.

Of course, if she followed that logic through, it could only mean one thing: that they were probably going to come after her – once they 'secured' all the potential slayers that were influenced by her.

Images of the Council killing Potentials in cold blood filled her mind. As she thought about those girls who had stood next to her against the First's army and the confusion and betrayal they must've felt as they lay dying, she couldn't help but take a step toward Collins before forcing herself to stop. It was becoming more difficult by the second, though.

Thankfully, she was distracted once again as she felt Eric move towards her. To do what, she didn't know, and she didn't want to find out. She wasn't fully in control of her emotions, and she desperately needed some space.

"No, don't touch me," she said sharply. "Just give me a minute. I need to get some air."

With that, she turned on her heel and walked outside. She realized that she was leaving it to chance that Eric and Bill wouldn't hurt Collins. Guiltily, part of her hoped that they would.

As she walked woodenly across the lawn, she tried to reign in her emotions. It was useless, though. After Sunnydale had collapsed, she had shut herself off from the world. Now, however, she felt too much.

She felt her stomach churning. It was getting progressively worse, too, until she finally vomited behind a nearby tree. After she had completely emptied out the contents of her stomach, she rested her forehead against the bark.

What was she going to do now? Take on the Council, a group who might be evil but still very much human? And just what was she going to do with Collins? How far would she go to get answers? And what about afterwards? She couldn't just let him go. But what was the alternative? Keeping him captive indefinitely? Or killing him? Eric obviously had less than friendly feelings toward the man. What if he tried to hurt or kill Collins? Would she then stake Eric for doing something she wanted to but couldn't?

Without thinking, she began to punch the poor tree with every ounce of her Slayer strength. Huge splinters of wood came flying off. Soon her knuckles became covered in blood, but she didn't care. It didn't help, not really, but it was something. And it was all that kept her from walking back into that house and wrapping her hands around Collins' throat.

Sookie stared at Bill and Eric in shock, unable to completely comprehend what had just happened. And to think, just a few hours ago she was out with Tara, knowing absolutely nothing about Slayers and other vampires. And now – now she didn't know what was going on. Everything had happened so fast.

It all centered around the stranger tied up in her living room; this man who was sent to kill innocent girls who protected the world and who somehow knew who she was. Well, didn't that just ensure that she'd be sleeping with a shotgun for awhile?

Bill was also thinking about what Collins had said, staring at him as if he wanted nothing more than to rip his throat out. This human not only knew who Sookie was, but he had made it clear what he thought of humans who consorted with vampires. Not wanting to make any rash actions, however, especially in front of Sookie, Bill merely walked over to the window and peer outside.

"I hope you did not have any fondness for that large oak out front," he said grimly as he watched the Slayer mercilessly attack the trunk.

Sookie shook her head, wondering what the heck he meant. Buffy couldn't really be somehow removing an enormous tree, could she? She looked to Eric in askance, as he seemed to be the authority on, well, he justwas the authority.

Eric was deep in thought, however, purposefully ignoring Sookie's gaze. He didn't know what made him reach out to the Slayer a moment ago, and frankly, it disturbed him.

For the first time, he truly wondered the full implication of having a blood bond with the Slayer.

He could feel the emotions pouring off of her; such intense rage and agony. It was almost crippling, and he was somewhat relieved when she decided to step outside.

They were far from finished here, however. They still had this human to take care of and many questions that needed to be answered. For instance, what was this filth's connection to the Fellowship? And how much did his group know about Sookie, Bill, and him?

Luckily, he had a feeling that the Slayer wouldn't mind changing interrogation tactics; tactics that relied on violence. Then again, she was in such a volatile state of mind right now, it was difficult to predict her reactions. Nevertheless, he needed to retrieve her.

Still he made no move toward the door; he could still feel the intensity of emotions roiling within her. Perhaps a few more minutes wouldn't hurt. Their captive certainly wasn't going anywhere, and he needed to take care of something first anyway.

This human was not stupid. In fact, all evidence was to the contrary. Even though he saw Violet's attack in the alley, he did not leave town, which meant that he did not take her impending death for granted. And when a body didn't appear, he probably became suspicious. Perhaps he even reported this back to the Council. And if others from this Council thought that Violet may be a vampire, she wasn't safe; none of them were.

He took out his cell and called Pam, quickly explaining what they had discovered so far and ensuring that Violet was under guard. Satisfied, he hung up and turned to Bill. It was time to bring the Slayer back.

"Come with me," he said lightly.

Bill hesitated, unwilling to leave Sookie with this human, even if the man was securely tied to the chair. At Sookie's nod of assurance, however, he acquiesced. Apparently even the great Eric did not want to approach the enraged Slayer alone – and he didn't blame him.

Buffy was lost in a haze of fury, pummeling the hapless tree. She didn't even feel the pain as her fists met the unyielding wood again and again and again; she had finally let her anger out, and now that it had started, there was no stopping it.

She was angry that her friends died; angry that she never got to tell them how much they hurt her when they kicked her out; angry that she never got to forgive them; angry at the Powers That Be for not lifting a finger to protect the Potentials; angry at these new vamps for making the entire world a pale gray; and finally, angry at Collins and the Council for betraying them all.

She continued her assault for what seemed like forever, only pausing as she felt vampires approaching. Unable to deny her instincts even though she knew who it was, she quickly looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, Bill and Eric were walking toward her.

She turned back to her one-sided fight with the tree. When they finally came to a stop just slightly behind her, she simply said, "Leave me alone."

"Buffy."

The fact that Eric said her name surprised her, so much so that she stopped punching the tree for one brief second. She refused to look at him, though, and quickly resumed her assault.

"An angry Slayer and bits of wood flying about? Not the best combination," she warned, her voice low and dangerous. "Get. Away."

To their credit, neither Bill nor Eric budged an inch, either away from her or toward her. After all, she knew that the scent of her blood filled the air.

What she didn't know was just how much havoc it was wreaking on Eric's senses. Still, it didn't stop him from reaching out to her for the second time that night, this time managing to place his hand lightly on her shoulder.

At the slight weight of his hand, she paused again, unsure whether to ignore it or grab it and send it – along with the vamp attached to it – flying into the tree. Before she could decide, however, a scream rent the night air.

"Sookie," Bill whispered, before using every ounce of his vampiric speed to race back toward the house, quickly followed by Eric.

Even with the extra speed from Eric's blood, she still was no match for the two vampires. By the time she charged through the door, whatever had happened was over.

And Collins was dead on the floor, his neck obviously broken.

Sookie was swallowed in a huge embrace by Bill. There was also a large vampire looming over Collins' broken body, looking almost bewildered, like a child would be. And… did he bear a striking resemblance to Elvis?

"I was protecting Miss Sookie," the Elvis-like vamp explained. "When I saw you was leaving the house, I snuck in to make sure she was okay."

"Yes, Bubba, you did a fine job," Bill reassured him, and the large vampire beamed back at him.

Meanwhile, Eric's eyes were fixed on Buffy, waiting to see what her reaction would be. He was ready to intervene, but he hoped it wouldn't be necessary.

Buffy, however, did nothing. She just stood there in shock.

Deciding that the situation was probably safe for now, Eric looked directly at Sookie. "What happened?" he demanded.

A warning growl began to emanate from Bill, but it was quickly silenced by Eric's answering glare.

Knowing she had no choice but to answer, a visibly shaken Sookie raised her head and looked at Eric. "He- he said that it was a shame that I was working with the Queen, because telepaths could be useful. He couldn't risk me reading him mind anymore, though. So he… chanted something, like a spell, and suddenly the ropes were gone. And then he tried to k-k-kill me," she sniffed. Then she looked up at Bill. "What was he talking about? I don't know any queens, let alone work for one."

'I do not know," Bill replied solemnly before enveloping her again in a comforting embrace.

Buffy vaguely heard Bill's response, but in truth it barely registered; she was too busy focusing on the fact that Collins couldn't risk Sookie reading any more of his mind.

There was more that she wasn't supposed to know - and now there was no way she could find out.

She gazed down at Collins, looking for answers to questions he would never reveal. It was the wrong thing to do, though. His sightless eyes seemed to burn right through her in accusation.

Feeling as though all the air had suddenly left the room, she did the only thing she could think of – she ran.

No one in the house tried to stop her. Maybe it was because they could see that they put their own lives at risk in doing so. Or maybe it was because there was no where for her to go, not really. She couldn't run back to Shreveport, and in the drive from Merlotte's to Sookie's house, Buffy got the feeling that she pretty much got the grand tour of Bon Temps.

This realization slowed her down until she came to a stop. She paused, unsure of what she was going to do. For a split second, she thought about going back to Sookie's house. After all, she did leave them there with her mess to clean up.

No. She couldn't go back and look at Collins. If she did, then she would have to face the fact that she just might've killed him herself if that other vamp hadn't beaten her to it.

This thought brought her to her knees. Her mouth opened in a soundless scream that left her gasping, desperately clutching the grass underneath her for support. And yet she couldn't stop.

She didn't know how much time she spent there on the ground, only that when she finally took stock of her surroundings, she found herself only a few hundred feet away from Merlotte's. She gave a humorless laugh. Wasn't she just saying a few nights ago that she was going to find Vi, figure out what happened to the Potentials, and then get drunk?

It wouldn't solve her problems, but she could put them on hold for at least a few hours. It wasn't as if anyone was depending on her anymore; they were already dead, all because of her.

Making up her mind, she strode toward the front door of Merlotte's, pulling out her cell phone as she did so.

She quickly spoke to Vi, letting her know what she had learned from Collins. To her surprise, Vi told her that Eric had already called and instructed his fledgling not to be seen in public, for her own safety.

Buffy could hear the unspoken question in Vi's tone, but she ignored it, simply asking Vi to e-mail Xander this new information. She knew she should say more, like what the plan was, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't have any answers, not anymore.

She hung up her phone and walked into the restaurant, noticing that there was still a good sized crowd considering the late hour. A few heads turned her way as she made her way to the bar, but she didn't notice.

A red-headed waitress was behind the bar. At Buffy's appearance, she appeared startled. "Can I get you something to drink? A bottle of TruBlood?" she asked nervously.

Obviously, the woman must've seen her earlier with Eric and assumed she was a vampire. Buffy wrinkled her nose at the thought, but all she said was "No thanks".

Then, ignoring the waitress' flustered embarrassment, she began to scan the bottles of alcohol on the shelf. She had never been much of a drinker, so she just looked until one caught her eye. It didn't take long.

Perfect, she thought bitterly. She pulled out a twenty and put it on the bar.

"A shot of Southern Comfort, please."

The waitress shot an uneasy look at the bartender, the one who sent Buffy's spidey sense off earlier, who immediately gave the woman a reassuring smile.

"S'okay, Arlene," he said, quickly pulling the 100 proof Southern Comfort off the shelf. "I'll take care of this."

Buffy studied him as he walked toward her; she still couldn't figure out what kind of supernatural being he was, but unless he started a bloodbath right here and now, she really didn't care.

"Southern Comfort, huh?" he mused aloud as he got busy pouring her drink. "Do you want me to add some lime to it?"

Buffy shrugged indifferently. Why not? Her life as she knew it was collapsing in on her; a little citrus would hardly make or break the rest of her night. She gave a slight nod of thanks when he put the drink in front of her. Then, to her relief, he immediately walked away, leaving her alone.

She tossed back her drink in one gulp, bracing herself for the bitter bite of alcohol, almost looking forward to it. But it never came. Frowning, she stared at the empty shot glass, as if it owed her an explanation. She was so engrossed that it took a moment for her to realize that a wet washcloth suddenly appeared in her line of vision. She couldn't help but look up in surprise, only to see the bartender in front of her.

He silently gestured toward her bloody knuckles.

Buffy looked down at her hands and frowned. Geez, she was lucky he let her stay at all. This couldn't be good for the health code. She wasn't dripping blood, but her hands didn't look pretty. No wonder the waitress had looked at her strangely.

She picked up the cloth and wiped off the dirt and blood slowly and methodically. She idly noted that she had a few nasty splinters lodged underneath her skin. Good.

"It's none of my business, but are you in trouble, miss? Is Sookie?"

Buffy looked up, a little startled; the bartender was still there. She saw the concern on his face and felt herself soften a little. As much as she wanted to be left alone, she found his concern strangely comforting, even though she knew it was for Sookie and not her. It made her feel… human.

"No, she's fine. As for me?" she said with a shrug. "It doesn't matter."

Sam studied the girl for a moment before speaking. There was something different about her; he knew that the second she first walked into the bar and fixed him with a curious gaze. And although she showed up first with that vampire and now with bloodied hands, he wasn't convinced she was dangerous. He could plainly see the silver cross hanging around her neck – and the pain and vulnerability shining from her eyes.

He took the blood-stained cloth and threw it in the trash, taking a moment to wash the counter and his hands before coming back to where she was. It also gave him a few minutes to think the situation through.

"Maybe I should call the Sheriff," he offered.

Something in his tone signaled that he wasn't necessarily asking Buffy if that's what she wanted, that he just might do it no matter what. Considering she was a stranger in a small town with a dead body at Sookie's house, the cops were the last thing she wanted right now. She needed to somehow reassure this guy that everything was okay, and fast.

"Not unless he's got room in a cell for a humungous tree. Or unless hitting a tree counts as assault," Buffy quipped, though her cheery tone fell far short of convincing. At Sam's puzzled, worried look, she dropped all pretenses. "I, uh, got upsetting news and went ten rounds with a tree. I'm still not sure who won."

She showed him the splinters in her hands as proof.

Sam hesitated. "Well, then you should at least get that looked after."

She waved off his concern with a weak smile. "That's what I'm here for," she said, nodding to the empty shot glass, which he refilled after only a moment's hesitation.

"So you did that to yourself? All by yourself?" he asked.

Buffy studied him. Though his tone was casual, she knew what he was really asking.

"Yep," she said. After a pause, she muttered under her breath, "You must think I'm crazy."

"Nah, I'm just thinking it had to be some pretty awful news," Sam said lightly, though he watched her reaction carefully.

Buffy stiffened in her seat. "Some of the worst," she cautiously admitted.

Sam saw the hollow look that entered her eyes and wondered at it. Before he could ask any more questions, however, the phone behind the bar rang. With an apologetic look, he walked to the phone and quickly answered.

"Merlotte's. Oh, hey Sookie," Sam said. Buffy could hear the warmth in his voice as he spoke. "Is everything okay?...Yeah, she's here…"

Buffy watched as Sam frowned at whatever Sookie said next. He turned his back to her, probably in attempt to keep her from hearing. If only he knew.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?"

"Are you sure everything's okay?"

Just then the redheaded waitress walked behind the bar, apparently getting a drink for another customer. Buffy realized that she might as well take advantage of the situation while she could, because she had a feeling the bartender was going to shut her off if she asked for too many more.

"Excuse me?" she said as politely as possible. "Could I please have another shot?"

Arlene hesitated for a second, but she relented at the girl's pleasant, unassuming, non-drunk smile. After all, the girl had only just gotten there. She couldn't have had more than one. Besides, Arlene was feeling a little guilty over her initial reaction to the stranger.

"Here you go, darlin'," she said as she refilled the girl's glass.

"Thanks," Buffy murmured as the waitress picked up her other order and hurried away, though not before giving a small nod of acknowledgement.

Alone again, Buffy quickly downed this shot as she resumed her eavesdropping on the bartender's conversation.

"Okay, okay. But I don't like it."

"Alright. Bye."

Sam hung up the phone and walked over to Buffy, unsure of what to say. Taking advantage of the awkward silence, Buffy motioned to her empty glass in askance.

Sam frowned. He had no idea if she could hold her liquor, and she was just a little bit of a thing, even if she wasn't quite what she appeared to be. But then, she looked like she could use it. And he was curious more than ever as to what the hell was going on over at Sookie's house, seeing as Sookie wasn't telling him anything.

"Okay, but this is the last one," he warned as he refilled her shot glass, ignoring the pang of guilt over liquoring a girl up just to get information.

Buffy nodded gratefully at him as he passed the glass back to her. After a long, traumatic night and an empty stomach, the alcohol was starting to hit her, and she didn't want it to stop. It made the pain seem… not less, but more distant. It was the most she could hope for, really.

She had just tossed back the shot when Eric strode into the bar, and she immediately tensed. Call her a coward, but she wasn't ready to deal with reality yet. And where the hell was this blood bond that was supposed to let her know he was coming?

Sam straightened up and studied Eric as the vampire came near, clearly unhappy at the vampire's appearance. "Can I help you?"

Eric ignored him and walked right over to Buffy, towering over her as he looked down. "It's time to leave," he said quietly.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Sam interjected, regretting all the alcohol he had given her more than ever.

"Are you going to stop me?" Eric said under his breath so that only those with supernatural hearing could hear.

Buffy fixed him with a baleful look. There was no need to threaten the bartender. She didn't want to cause a scene, though. Besides, he was right; she didn't belong here.

Taking a deep breath, she looked at the bartender, who looked worried. She tried to give him a reassuring smile, though she was pretty sure it came out more as a grimace.

"I'll be fine," she said quietly.

Then she put another bill on the bar counter to make sure she had paid enough and stood, signaling to Eric that she was ready to leave. She felt the room sway a little as she did, however, and she had to grab on to the counter for support. Once the room stopped swaying, she made her way to the door with Eric close on her heels.

The two of them walked out to the parking lot in silence. As soon as the door had closed, however, she wheeled around on him, trying her best to ignore the way this made the world spin.

"So what now?" she asked scornfully. "Do we shake hands and say it's been fun? Or are you gonna make another lame attempt to get me to stay… with you? I mean, isn't this exactly where you want me? Alone, with no friends or family or anybody?"

In the back of her mind, she was aware that she was unfairly directing her anger toward Eric. He was an easy target, though. After all, maybe if his kind of vamp stayed hidden, she wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

Unflappable as always, Eric showed no reaction, which only pissed her off more.

"Now I take you back to Sookie's," he said. "It's too close to dawn to return to Shreveport, and Bill and I need to return to his house before sunrise."

She tried to protest, but she really couldn't disagree with his plan. She was too tired, physically and emotionally, and it wasn't like she had a better idea.

And, in her heart of hearts, she knew that she had very few allies left in the world.

Faced with this reality, she felt her anger deflate, and she began looking around for his car. It wasn't in the parking lot, though. Furrowing her brow, she looked at him quizzically.

Eric smiled at her. Without saying a word, he looked pointedly up toward the sky.

Buffy gaped at him for a moment. No way. He couldn't be serious. But he was. And to her surprise, she just stood there as he effortlessly scooped her up in his arms.

She knew she should protest, that she should just start walking, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She would probably have trouble walking more than 200 feet at this point anyway, as the alcohol was really kicking in now. And once they were up in the air…

If she could've, she would've stayed up in the clouds forever. It was so surreal that she could almost forget everything that had happened. As it was, they were landing in Sookie's front yard all too soon. She felt the gravity of the earth pulling her down again, and she resented it.

With a sigh, she rested her head against Eric's chest – not because she wanted to, though. No, it was just that her head now felt like it weighed a ton, and not in a good way. So what if it meant she was curled up like a sleepy kitten against the Sheriff?

She felt him flinch in surprise, but he said nothing.

As they began walking up the front porch, Buffy faintly caught a rush of movement out of the corner of her eye. Eric saw it, too, and he turned to face whatever it was.

Buffy blinked and squinted at it in disbelief; it was a dog, running directly toward them. It didn't stop, either, until it was right in front of them.

She had never seen a dog look so distrustful before, but there it was. She didn't think it was aimed at her, though.

There was also something familiar about him, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it, and in her current state, she really didn't want to try.

"Satisfied?" Eric said lightly.

Buffy could've sworn he was directing it to the dog. And she also thought the dog's answering bark was a distinct 'hell no'. Then again, she wasn't exactly in top form.

The dog quickly disappeared from view as Eric continued to walk inside the house. They passed by Sookie and Bill, who were still in the living room. The other vamp was gone. Buffy closed her eyes tightly. She was pretty sure Collins' body had disappeared, too, but she didn't want to see, just in case.

She opened her eyes again as she heard Eric walk up the stairs and open a door. They were in a bedroom now, a decidedly feminine one with delicate flowers decorating the bedspread and curtains. Buffy found herself being gently deposited on the bed. As she continued to get her bearings, she saw that Eric was already walking to the door to leave.

"What? That's it? No trying to take advantage of the drunk Slayer?" she blurted out, feeling a little resentment at being put to bed like a child.

The alcohol had dulled the pain of the night's revelations, but it had obviously loosened her tongue, too – a little too much.

In a flash, Eric zoomed up to her and was now looming over her, practically lying on top of her.

Buffy felt her breath catch. She knew she should push him away, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. Of course, she would've had a hard time figuring out which Eric she should push, as there were currently two swimming in her line of vision.

"Do you want me to?" he asked coyly.

Buffy gave a snort of derision – at least she hoped that's what it sounded like. "No! It's just that after all your posturing, it's interesting that you're not going to follow through, now that you have the chance," she goaded. "What, are you all bark and no bite?"

In the back of her mind, Buffy was wondering what the heck she was doing. Did that actually sound like an invitation to bite her?

The Slayer in her screamed in rage, telling her to shut up; however, the girl inside her, who was feeling more broken and battered than ever before, dared him to try, wanted him to, even. She wasn't sure if she was looking for an excuse to stake him, or something else, something much darker.

Eric studied her for a moment, his face betraying nothing. This was new, dangerous territory, and he had to watch his step. He couldn't resist the opportunity she presented entirely, however.

He bent his head down toward her, hovering just above her ear and inhaling her scent. Then he pulled back slightly so their faces were just inches from each other.

For the briefest second, Buffy thought that he was actually going to kiss her. And if she were honest with herself, she just might have let him, whether it was because of the alcohol, the blood bond, the tension between them, the fact that she really did feel isolated and alone, or all of the above.

But he didn't. She watched as a small, satisfied smile spread across his face as he pulled back.

"I don't like the taste of alcohol," he said blandly, before straightening up and walking away.

Speechless, Buffy watched as he closed the door without a backward look. Catastrophe narrowly avoided, with absolutely no help from her.

Once she was certain that he had gone downstairs again, she flopped back onto the bed, her sudden action causing the room to do an Irish jig. Once she was sure she wasn't going to hurl, the realization of what had almost happened – of what she had almost let happen – finally hit her like a sledgehammer. She curled into a ball, burning with self-loathing and shame.

Thankfully, she didn't have to dwell on her actions – or the potential consequences of said actions – for too long. The day's events were finally catching up with her, and she soon felt herself mercifully drifting off to sleep.

She could pray only that she would have a dreamless sleep tonight. Or that she would wake up and discover that today had just been a bad dream.

Sookie and Bill sat in the living room, waiting for Eric to come back downstairs.

"Are you sure about this?" Bill asked hesitantly. "We only just met her. For all we know-"

Sookie shook her head. "No, Bill," she said firmly. "It's fine. And with everything that's gone on tonight, I can't just turn my back. Besides, it involves me now, too."

Bill set his lips in a thin line, clearly not liking this.

Sookie ignored him, though. She had made up her mind. She needed to know more about this Council and what they were capable of; they all did. Besides, there was more she had to tell Buffy, like the fact that there was another Slayer.

When that man had tried to kill her, he let his mind open. She saw a lot of things, most of which she didn't understand. She had a feeling Buffy would, though.

The one thing that came through loud and clear, however, was that there was a new Slayer. Sookie still remembered the way Collins thought of this Slayer and the havoc she would wreak on Buffy and the vampire world in general – and she was carrying a mean-looking red axe.

No, they were all in danger, and they needed to find out who their friends were now.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Fellowship of the Slayer

A/N: I know, I know. I'm a very bad author... And despite this, people are still reading and reviewing, something for which I am extremely grateful for. :) *dodges flames and holds up pic as shield*

Big thanks to my betas, deiticlast, murg, and satsuma, and to AwesomeGeek and kerrykhat for putting up with me when I obsessively tweak a chapter. :P And thanks to amelockhart, brigand, fairywm, Krysis, Lisette, mags, punzl, Rosetta, and ShoePixie for the recs! Now onto the story!

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Buffy stared at Oz, not quite believing her eyes. Then, moving faster than Xander and Oz thought possible – even for her – she half-tackled/half-hugged the werewolf. Oz, for his part, was completely unfazed and returned the heartfelt embrace – once he regained his footing.

"Surprise," Xander announced, a huge grin on his face as he came to stand next to them.

Buffy pulled back to look at Oz in mock consternation. "Please don't tell me that you're the surprise that could potentially bring on the apocalypse," she warned.

Oz shrugged, though a slight smile tugged around his mouth. "I can be unpredictable that way."

Suppressing a snort of laughter, Buffy turned and looked expectantly at Xander, who immediately held his hands up in surrender.

"Ah, after Sunnydale, I went to find Oz. I figured he deserved to be told in person what had happened," he explained. There was a moment of silence as both he and Oz looked down at the ground. Then he looked up at Buffy with a wry grin. "As for the apocalypse part, well, I was just joking- ouch!"

"Xander, there are two things you never joke about: potential apocalypses and- and something else equally unfunny, like syphilis," Buffy said pointedly.

"So noted," he acknowledged, wincing slightly as he rubbed his now sore arm. "Geez, Buffy. Someone needs to lay off the Wheaties."

Buffy just rolled her eyes, though the effect was somewhat ruined by the grin on her face. It was good to see them.

Eric, Bill, and Sookie stood on the porch, silently watching this entire exchange – or more accurately, Bill and Eric were watching. Sookie was concentrating on what was inside the strangers' heads, and, well, it was a good thing she didn't have to work tonight, because it was about to get very interesting – as if it wasn't already.

First, there was the redhead – Oz, Buffy had called him. There was more to him than met the eye, that much was for sure. Trouble was, that was all Sookie could tell; when she tried to listen to his thoughts, she just heard a faint buzzing noise – the same thing that happened whenever she tried to listen in to Sam's mind. Was he a shifter, too? Maybe that was why Bill and Eric were staring at him like he was a bug under a microscope…

Then there was the guy with the eye patch, Xander. Now he was 100% human and a broadcaster at that. Andhe was currently sizing them up with surprising accuracy.

She listened as he took in her tan, the way she stood close to Bill, and the curiosity that was apparently written all over her face. He also took a moment to appreciate her… vigorous appearance. Before she could even manage a modest blush, however, he had already turned his attention to the vampires, immediately noting their extremely pale countenances and the unnatural way they stood still. What's more, he noticed the way they were focused on Oz – and the way Eric would occasionally glance at Buffy.

Sookie watched as Xander turned to give Buffy a look of horrified disbelief. Before he could verbalize his thoughts on the matter – some of which Sookie took offense to because she was currently dating a vampire – Oz spoke up.

"Huh, vampires," he noted, looking at Eric and Bill thoughtfully. "That's interesting."

Xander shook himself out of his stupor and glared at his friend. "Hey, that's my line," he protested. "Of course, I would've phrased it as, 'Dear God, Buffy, another vampire? Seriously?!'"

Buffy scowled. It deepened even further when she felt Eric's delight at both her and Xander's reactions. "No, Xander," she said hotly. "It's not like that."

"Uh huh," Xander replied, obviously unconvinced as he gave Eric another look over. "Does the phrase 'mortal enemies' mean nothing to you?"

Eric merely gave him a mild grin, though he purposefully showed a little fang. He found it amusing, especially the embarrassment and guilt currently radiating from the Slayer.

"Whatever," Buffy muttered, thoroughly annoyed with them both. It was so time for a subject change. "Sookie, Bill, Eric, meet Oz and Xander, my friends from Sunnydale. Guys, these three have been helping me figure out what the heck Collins and the Council are up to."

She paused, watching as the two groups acknowledged each other warily. Clearly mistrust was abounding, so she figured that she might as well get everything out in the open, even if it was just stating the – mostly – obvious.

"Bill and Eric are vamps of the non-demony variety, and Sookie's a telepath," she explained to Xander and Oz. She felt Eric's flash of annoyance and rolled her eyes as she turned toward him and the others. Did he really expect her not to tell her friends about Sookie? "And Oz is a werewolf."

Sookie bit back a gasp of surprise, though it wasn't at the revelation that Oz was an honest to God werewolf – or because Buffy had spilled the beans about her 'ability'. No, she was startled by the sudden barrage of images in her head.

Xander was panicking, his mind moving a mile a minute as the truth about her sunk in. She could hear him worrying that she had read his mind not two minutes ago when he was admiring the way she filled out her shirt, and she could practically see the light bulb go off over his head when he realized that she was probably reading his mind at that very moment.

Bearing an uncanny resemblance to a deer in the headlights, he immediately began to recite 'Mary had a little lamb' in his head over and over again – which only meant that all the lurid thoughts and images that came to his mind were interspersed with a children's nursery rhyme.

This is wrong on so many levels.

The thought came through so forcefully, it nearly knocked Sookie over.

The guy was so obviously miserable that she almost forgave him for his not so nice thoughts earlier about girls who dated vampires. Well, she could at least hide her smile, right? It was the polite thing to do, after all.

She must've been as transparent as plastic wrap, though, because he took one look at her and flushed bright red, mentally berating himself about a knee jerk reaction to mindreading even after years of fighting 'baddies' on the Hellmouth.

Thankfully for both of them, Buffy started talking again. "Not that I'm complaining, but how did you find me?" she was asking.

With a palpable sound of relief, Xander cleared his throat. "We, uh, were already on our way down here when we got Vi's e-mail. Then we just looked up Sookie's address in the phone book and came here," he shrugged nonchalantly, though a blush still stained his cheeks. "We tried to get Vi to come with us, too, but she's on lockdown or something."

This caught Eric's attention, and he stared at Xander as he digested what the boy had just said. Violet was so willful, to give that information – especially his whereabouts – so freely. He would have to have a conversation with both her and Chow. While he was reluctant to take any action against Violet because of the slayer, he could not afford to give her free reign, especially as it would send a message to others that he had no control whatsoever – which he clearly didn't.

Xander gave a nervous laugh. The fact that Leif Erikson over there was currently fixing him with this inscrutable look was not lost on him. "I never thought I'd say this, but I'm missing Angel right about now," he muttered under his breath to Oz. "I definitely prefer my vampire irritable and obvious."

Buffy gave him a sharp glance, which was punctuated by the glee she felt from Eric at this tidbit of information. She'd have to tell Xander in private later to watch what he said, for both their sakes. Then it dawned on her.

"Wait!" she exclaimed. "You were already coming down here? Why?"

Xander gave her a perplexed look. "Because of Kennedy," he said slowly, as if that were obvious. Then he looked up toward the house. "Where is she, anyway? Has she gotten here yet? I can't imagine we beat her here with the head start she got."

Buffy felt as if she had been punched in the solar plexus. "Kennedy… is alive?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

How did Sookie describe the new slayer? A thin brunette who hated her? Kennedy certainly fit that bill, didn't she?

Xander, seeing the shock on her face, looked at Oz and started cursing. "Damn it! She could be in trouble, and we lost her!" he exclaimed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "We're really sorry, Buffy. All the signs said she had headed south. We just figured that you finally got in touch with her, so we were heading down here ourselves when we got Vi's message. I'll never forgive myself if something happened to her."

"Sorry, Buff," Oz murmured, also looking chagrined. Well, chagrined for him.

Buffy was at a loss for words. She could see that they had misunderstood her. Not that she blamed didn't know the details of Sookie's romp in Collins' mind yet. But she did. And it was starting to make sense – terrible, nightmare-inducing sense.

Buffy sighed. Well, this was the kind of fun that wasn't.

After Xander's bomb, they all had moved back inside to Sookie's living room where they could talk more privately. There was a slight issue of who sat where, so after playing some serious musical chairs, Sookie and Bill were finally settled back on the love seat, Oz in the armchair, and Eric and Xander on the couch, with her in the middle. And of course Eric was shamelessly using this as an opportunity to sit uncomfortably close to her.

That was okay, though. Mostly. It allowed her to pull herself out of her earlier shock anyway. But now she was firmly in slayer mode, and she was getting antsy. It didn't help that things were going nowhere fast; she had just gotten her friends up to speed, and not too surprisingly, they didn't know what to say so they weren't saying anything at all.

To make matters worse, in her effort to catch them up, she had mentioned what Sookie had told her about Collins and the new slayer, something Eric had specifically told the telepath not to do until he got there; so now Eric's eyes were trained on the poor girl, with Bill glaring right back at him. And what was it with Eric and smelling hair?

All she needed now was for Bubba to appear out of thin air again for the party to really start.

Just as she was about to elbow Eric to stop antagonizing Bill, Xander broke the silence.

"So let me get this straight. The Council is trying to kill Potentials, and our good friend Collins showed up to kill Vi, who incidentally is a vampire. You caught Collins, though, and brought him here, questioning him until another vampire, one who's conveniently not here, killed him. And there's a slayer who hates you and wants to kill you," he summed up. He gave Buffy a ghost of a smile. "You can take the girl out of the Hellmouth…"

Buffy shot him a withering look. "And don't forget that Kennedy is probably the slayer in question," she added.

"She can't be," Xander immediately protested. "Sure, she's got her hate on for you, but she's friends with the other Potentials, and she loved Willow."

"But Willow's dead," Oz quietly cut in. "And speaking from personal experience, I know what losing her can do to a person."

Xander paused as he thought about this. Then he brightened as something occurred to him. "But that still doesn't make sense. If she's really a slayer, it would mean that she was against us before the battle with the First," he reasoned. "Otherwise she would've told us she got Called when the other girls' powers disappeared and she still had hers."

"I know," Buffy replied steadily. The same thought had occurred to her as well, which meant that this went a lot deeper than they knew.

Xander shook his head in denial. "I don't believe it," he said stubbornly. "She's our friend."

"It has to be her, Xander," she said with grim finality. "And now she's headed here."

"But why?" Eric cut in. "It seems as though not many know you're here."

Buffy frowned. She hadn't thought about that. There was no way Kennedy would know she was here, which meant that she must be coming to meet Collins. But he had already checked out of his hotel the day before, so why? Come to think of it, why did Collins stick around for so long if he thought Vi was killed by those vamps in the alley? Maybe—

"Excuse me, but how does this all concern you, except for the fact that one of your minions turned Vi?" Xander asked irritably, disrupting Buffy's train of thought as he glared at the vampire.

Eric showed no reaction to this obvious baiting – and he felt some satisfaction at the look of astonishment on the boy's face. He had a feeling this one was going to be a thorn in his side, one that he couldn't pluck – or crush – not if he wanted the Slayer.

"And there's still his connection to the Fellowship," he added thoughtfully, as if the boy hadn't spoken at all.

"The Fellowship is involved?" Bill questioned, eyes narrowing with worry as he looked at Sookie. "If the Fellowship attacks our credibility while the Council kills our kind, I can assure you that we will have a war on our hands."

The room suddenly became very tense. It didn't help that a faint gleam had entered Eric's eye at the mention of war with the Fellowship and Council, one that he didn't bother masking.

"I wonder where the weres would stand," Oz mused aloud, effectively diffusing the situation with his question. He raised an eyebrow in amusement at the surprised looks he got. "They have a stake in all this, too."

Eric studied Oz with renewed interest. It was an interesting point, one worth exploring. Before he could comment, however, his cell phone began to ring.

"Yes."

Buffy rolled her eyes at the way he answered the phone but said nothing, putting all her energy into eavesdropping instead. It didn't work, though. The volume of the cell phone was so low, all she could make out was that it was Pam on the other end. That, and she was speaking in a low and urgent voice, her usual dry amusement completely gone. That couldn't be good.

She watched as Eric listened for another minute, acknowledging what Pam said with no more than an occasional 'yes', and then hung up. She knew it was bad news, though. Big yay for the blood bond.

Eric hung up the phone. Fully aware that Buffy knew his state of mind, he didn't waste any time playing games. "Violet is gone," he stated bluntly. As expected, he felt a surge of emotion from the Slayer. She said nothing, however, and her face looked as though it were set in stone. Unfortunately, her friend wasn't as self-contained.

"Again?!" Xander blurted out. "We need to put some sort of tracking device on that girl!"

Sookie stared at Xander with wide eyes. Just because she was thinking the same thing, that didn't mean she would say it out loud as she was pretty sure it could be taken as a criticism of Eric and his management of his territory. And even from her limited experience, she knew that vampires didn't take too kindly to comments from the human peanut gallery.

To her surprise, however, Eric didn't even acknowledge this slight. Boy, he must've really wanted to stay on Buffy's good side. Murderous people who wanted to start a war aside, the Slayer's presence was definitely a good thing.

"She was abducted from Fangtasia," Eric continued, a trace of anger in his voice, though his expression remained neutral. "They left a note. 'We know you have him.'"

Buffy leapt to her feet and began to pace, well aware that she was just barely controlling the despair and rage welling up inside her. Add to that Eric's own anger, which was coming through loud and clear from the bond, and well, things didn't look too good for the local tree population.

"It's no coincidence they took Vi. And she would only let her guard down if it was someone she trusted," she bit out angrily, aiming her comment specifically at Xander before looking at Eric. "If they want to trade, they're going to move fast on this. Let's go."

Both Xander and Oz immediately got to their feet, ready to leave. A split second later, Sookie and a slightly more reluctant Bill also stood up.

Buffy raised a questioning eyebrow at the telepath.

"What?" Sookie said, just a little bit offended. "You said I couldn't stay here, right?"

Buffy had forgotten she had said that, and now her words were obviously coming back for some major ass biting.

Chagrined, she glared at Sookie, inadvertently venting some of her anger over the situation at the poor girl. "Yeah, but I meant you should take a vacation. Remember, me? The harbinger of doom?"

"Are you always this cheery?" Sookie retorted, the frustration plain in her voice even in the face of Buffy's displeasure. She didn't stick her tongue out like she wanted to, though, so points for her. Of course, it helped knowing that she might not get it back if she did. "Don't get me wrong. I don't want to come within a football field of this other slayer, but I'd rather not wait here for some nice guy to knock on my door and take me out while you all are in Shreveport, either."

"Sookie…" Bill said in a low voice, putting a placating hand on her arm.

She immediately pulled her arm away and rounded on him. "Don't you dare, Bill Compton," she warned.

Eric studied the pair. "Her telepathy could be useful. And she hasn't had the opportunity to tell us the rest of the dead man's thoughts," he blandly pointed out.

Bill gave Eric a venomous look. "And what? You'll protect her just as you did Violet?"

"It's more than you can offer her. What will you do during the day, Bill? Remember, the Council is human," Eric coldly reminded him. Then he gave a small, arrogant smirk. "Besides, with both the Slayer and myself there, I hardly think Sookie will be the focus."

The room vibrated with tension as the two vampires glared at each other. Buffy could feel all the non-vampiric eyes on her, waiting to see what she would do. She did nothing, however, stuck in a moment of indecision. As much as she hated to admit it, both Sookie and Eric had a point. Then again, so did Bill.

Seeing her hesitation, Xander made a sound of disbelief. "Buff, you're not seriously considering this," he protested. "Angel Junior is bringing up some very valid arguments here."

Angel Junior? If Buffy were in a different frame of mind, she would be smirking at Xander's observation. But now, when he was looking at her like that? So not happening. And so much for a happy reunion, huh? She felt herself getting angrier.

"I'm not 'considering' anything, Xander. Did you ever stop to think that Sookie's her own person?" she snapped.

She knew she was conveniently 'forgetting' that she had just been about to put the kibosh on Sookie's plans to go with them, but there were just too many similarities to the Potentials and her decisions that led them to their deaths.

This wasn't lost on Xander, either. He scowled at her for a long moment before he took a deep breath. "We've still got issues between us. I got that. You're too close to this – we both are," he ruefully admitted. "But there's a bigger picture here."

As Xander backed down, Buffy allowed herself to do the same, finally acknowledging that he had a point. "I know, but as much as it pains me to admit, Eric's right," she said quietly. "Kennedy would have to be stupid to try something with him, his vamps, and us around."

"Which she's not," Xander pointed out. "Which means there's probably more to this than we know."

"This does sound like a trap," Oz admitted.

"Doesn't it always?" she muttered under her breath. She abruptly swung her gaze toward Sookie and fixed her with an unyielding gaze. "So you know the deal. It's up to you. Though I would like to stress that I still think a nice long vacation somewhere sunny is your best bet."

Startled by the sudden attention, Sookie didn't know what to say at first. Up until that moment, she had been watching the entire exchange in complete fascination. Somehow, in the course of things, Buffy had gone from practically forbidding her from coming to becoming the champion of self-determination (and yes, she could thank her word of the day calendar for that one).

"I'm in," she said quickly, before Bill could interject – and before she could change her mind.

Like she had said before, she was involved whether she liked it or not. And she'd be damned if she was just going to lie down and wait.

Besides, fortune favored the brave, right? Well, now, no one said it couldn't take pity on the stupid every now and then.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 17: Fellowship of the Slayer

A/N: I know, I know. I'm a very bad author... And despite this, people are still reading and reviewing, something for which I am extremely grateful for. :) *dodges flames and holds up pic as shield*

Big thanks to my betas, deiticlast, murg, and satsuma, and to AwesomeGeek and kerrykhat for putting up with me when I obsessively tweak a chapter. :P And thanks to amelockhart, brigand, fairywm, Krysis, Lisette, mags, punzl, Rosetta, and ShoePixie for the recs! Now onto the story!

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Buffy stared at Oz, not quite believing her eyes. Then, moving faster than Xander and Oz thought possible – even for her – she half-tackled/half-hugged the werewolf. Oz, for his part, was completely unfazed and returned the heartfelt embrace – once he regained his footing.

"Surprise," Xander announced, a huge grin on his face as he came to stand next to them.

Buffy pulled back to look at Oz in mock consternation. "Please don't tell me that you're the surprise that could potentially bring on the apocalypse," she warned.

Oz shrugged, though a slight smile tugged around his mouth. "I can be unpredictable that way."

Suppressing a snort of laughter, Buffy turned and looked expectantly at Xander, who immediately held his hands up in surrender.

"Ah, after Sunnydale, I went to find Oz. I figured he deserved to be told in person what had happened," he explained. There was a moment of silence as both he and Oz looked down at the ground. Then he looked up at Buffy with a wry grin. "As for the apocalypse part, well, I was just joking- ouch!"

"Xander, there are two things you never joke about: potential apocalypses and- and something else equally unfunny, like syphilis," Buffy said pointedly.

"So noted," he acknowledged, wincing slightly as he rubbed his now sore arm. "Geez, Buffy. Someone needs to lay off the Wheaties."

Buffy just rolled her eyes, though the effect was somewhat ruined by the grin on her face. It was good to see them.

Eric, Bill, and Sookie stood on the porch, silently watching this entire exchange – or more accurately, Bill and Eric were watching. Sookie was concentrating on what was inside the strangers' heads, and, well, it was a good thing she didn't have to work tonight, because it was about to get very interesting – as if it wasn't already.

First, there was the redhead – Oz, Buffy had called him. There was more to him than met the eye, that much was for sure. Trouble was, that was all Sookie could tell; when she tried to listen to his thoughts, she just heard a faint buzzing noise – the same thing that happened whenever she tried to listen in to Sam's mind. Was he a shifter, too? Maybe that was why Bill and Eric were staring at him like he was a bug under a microscope…

Then there was the guy with the eye patch, Xander. Now he was 100% human and a broadcaster at that. Andhe was currently sizing them up with surprising accuracy.

She listened as he took in her tan, the way she stood close to Bill, and the curiosity that was apparently written all over her face. He also took a moment to appreciate her… vigorous appearance. Before she could even manage a modest blush, however, he had already turned his attention to the vampires, immediately noting their extremely pale countenances and the unnatural way they stood still. What's more, he noticed the way they were focused on Oz – and the way Eric would occasionally glance at Buffy.

Sookie watched as Xander turned to give Buffy a look of horrified disbelief. Before he could verbalize his thoughts on the matter – some of which Sookie took offense to because she was currently dating a vampire – Oz spoke up.

"Huh, vampires," he noted, looking at Eric and Bill thoughtfully. "That's interesting."

Xander shook himself out of his stupor and glared at his friend. "Hey, that's my line," he protested. "Of course, I would've phrased it as, 'Dear God, Buffy, another vampire? Seriously?!'"

Buffy scowled. It deepened even further when she felt Eric's delight at both her and Xander's reactions. "No, Xander," she said hotly. "It's not like that."

"Uh huh," Xander replied, obviously unconvinced as he gave Eric another look over. "Does the phrase 'mortal enemies' mean nothing to you?"

Eric merely gave him a mild grin, though he purposefully showed a little fang. He found it amusing, especially the embarrassment and guilt currently radiating from the Slayer.

"Whatever," Buffy muttered, thoroughly annoyed with them both. It was so time for a subject change. "Sookie, Bill, Eric, meet Oz and Xander, my friends from Sunnydale. Guys, these three have been helping me figure out what the heck Collins and the Council are up to."

She paused, watching as the two groups acknowledged each other warily. Clearly mistrust was abounding, so she figured that she might as well get everything out in the open, even if it was just stating the – mostly – obvious.

"Bill and Eric are vamps of the non-demony variety, and Sookie's a telepath," she explained to Xander and Oz. She felt Eric's flash of annoyance and rolled her eyes as she turned toward him and the others. Did he really expect her not to tell her friends about Sookie? "And Oz is a werewolf."

Sookie bit back a gasp of surprise, though it wasn't at the revelation that Oz was an honest to God werewolf – or because Buffy had spilled the beans about her 'ability'. No, she was startled by the sudden barrage of images in her head.

Xander was panicking, his mind moving a mile a minute as the truth about her sunk in. She could hear him worrying that she had read his mind not two minutes ago when he was admiring the way she filled out her shirt, and she could practically see the light bulb go off over his head when he realized that she was probably reading his mind at that very moment.

Bearing an uncanny resemblance to a deer in the headlights, he immediately began to recite 'Mary had a little lamb' in his head over and over again – which only meant that all the lurid thoughts and images that came to his mind were interspersed with a children's nursery rhyme.

This is wrong on so many levels.

The thought came through so forcefully, it nearly knocked Sookie over.

The guy was so obviously miserable that she almost forgave him for his not so nice thoughts earlier about girls who dated vampires. Well, she could at least hide her smile, right? It was the polite thing to do, after all.

She must've been as transparent as plastic wrap, though, because he took one look at her and flushed bright red, mentally berating himself about a knee jerk reaction to mindreading even after years of fighting 'baddies' on the Hellmouth.

Thankfully for both of them, Buffy started talking again. "Not that I'm complaining, but how did you find me?" she was asking.

With a palpable sound of relief, Xander cleared his throat. "We, uh, were already on our way down here when we got Vi's e-mail. Then we just looked up Sookie's address in the phone book and came here," he shrugged nonchalantly, though a blush still stained his cheeks. "We tried to get Vi to come with us, too, but she's on lockdown or something."

This caught Eric's attention, and he stared at Xander as he digested what the boy had just said. Violet was so willful, to give that information – especially his whereabouts – so freely. He would have to have a conversation with both her and Chow. While he was reluctant to take any action against Violet because of the slayer, he could not afford to give her free reign, especially as it would send a message to others that he had no control whatsoever – which he clearly didn't.

Xander gave a nervous laugh. The fact that Leif Erikson over there was currently fixing him with this inscrutable look was not lost on him. "I never thought I'd say this, but I'm missing Angel right about now," he muttered under his breath to Oz. "I definitely prefer my vampire irritable and obvious."

Buffy gave him a sharp glance, which was punctuated by the glee she felt from Eric at this tidbit of information. She'd have to tell Xander in private later to watch what he said, for both their sakes. Then it dawned on her.

"Wait!" she exclaimed. "You were already coming down here? Why?"

Xander gave her a perplexed look. "Because of Kennedy," he said slowly, as if that were obvious. Then he looked up toward the house. "Where is she, anyway? Has she gotten here yet? I can't imagine we beat her here with the head start she got."

Buffy felt as if she had been punched in the solar plexus. "Kennedy… is alive?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

How did Sookie describe the new slayer? A thin brunette who hated her? Kennedy certainly fit that bill, didn't she?

Xander, seeing the shock on her face, looked at Oz and started cursing. "Damn it! She could be in trouble, and we lost her!" he exclaimed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "We're really sorry, Buffy. All the signs said she had headed south. We just figured that you finally got in touch with her, so we were heading down here ourselves when we got Vi's message. I'll never forgive myself if something happened to her."

"Sorry, Buff," Oz murmured, also looking chagrined. Well, chagrined for him.

Buffy was at a loss for words. She could see that they had misunderstood her. Not that she blamed didn't know the details of Sookie's romp in Collins' mind yet. But she did. And it was starting to make sense – terrible, nightmare-inducing sense.

Buffy sighed. Well, this was the kind of fun that wasn't.

After Xander's bomb, they all had moved back inside to Sookie's living room where they could talk more privately. There was a slight issue of who sat where, so after playing some serious musical chairs, Sookie and Bill were finally settled back on the love seat, Oz in the armchair, and Eric and Xander on the couch, with her in the middle. And of course Eric was shamelessly using this as an opportunity to sit uncomfortably close to her.

That was okay, though. Mostly. It allowed her to pull herself out of her earlier shock anyway. But now she was firmly in slayer mode, and she was getting antsy. It didn't help that things were going nowhere fast; she had just gotten her friends up to speed, and not too surprisingly, they didn't know what to say so they weren't saying anything at all.

To make matters worse, in her effort to catch them up, she had mentioned what Sookie had told her about Collins and the new slayer, something Eric had specifically told the telepath not to do until he got there; so now Eric's eyes were trained on the poor girl, with Bill glaring right back at him. And what was it with Eric and smelling hair?

All she needed now was for Bubba to appear out of thin air again for the party to really start.

Just as she was about to elbow Eric to stop antagonizing Bill, Xander broke the silence.

"So let me get this straight. The Council is trying to kill Potentials, and our good friend Collins showed up to kill Vi, who incidentally is a vampire. You caught Collins, though, and brought him here, questioning him until another vampire, one who's conveniently not here, killed him. And there's a slayer who hates you and wants to kill you," he summed up. He gave Buffy a ghost of a smile. "You can take the girl out of the Hellmouth…"

Buffy shot him a withering look. "And don't forget that Kennedy is probably the slayer in question," she added.

"She can't be," Xander immediately protested. "Sure, she's got her hate on for you, but she's friends with the other Potentials, and she loved Willow."

"But Willow's dead," Oz quietly cut in. "And speaking from personal experience, I know what losing her can do to a person."

Xander paused as he thought about this. Then he brightened as something occurred to him. "But that still doesn't make sense. If she's really a slayer, it would mean that she was against us before the battle with the First," he reasoned. "Otherwise she would've told us she got Called when the other girls' powers disappeared and she still had hers."

"I know," Buffy replied steadily. The same thought had occurred to her as well, which meant that this went a lot deeper than they knew.

Xander shook his head in denial. "I don't believe it," he said stubbornly. "She's our friend."

"It has to be her, Xander," she said with grim finality. "And now she's headed here."

"But why?" Eric cut in. "It seems as though not many know you're here."

Buffy frowned. She hadn't thought about that. There was no way Kennedy would know she was here, which meant that she must be coming to meet Collins. But he had already checked out of his hotel the day before, so why? Come to think of it, why did Collins stick around for so long if he thought Vi was killed by those vamps in the alley? Maybe—

"Excuse me, but how does this all concern you, except for the fact that one of your minions turned Vi?" Xander asked irritably, disrupting Buffy's train of thought as he glared at the vampire.

Eric showed no reaction to this obvious baiting – and he felt some satisfaction at the look of astonishment on the boy's face. He had a feeling this one was going to be a thorn in his side, one that he couldn't pluck – or crush – not if he wanted the Slayer.

"And there's still his connection to the Fellowship," he added thoughtfully, as if the boy hadn't spoken at all.

"The Fellowship is involved?" Bill questioned, eyes narrowing with worry as he looked at Sookie. "If the Fellowship attacks our credibility while the Council kills our kind, I can assure you that we will have a war on our hands."

The room suddenly became very tense. It didn't help that a faint gleam had entered Eric's eye at the mention of war with the Fellowship and Council, one that he didn't bother masking.

"I wonder where the weres would stand," Oz mused aloud, effectively diffusing the situation with his question. He raised an eyebrow in amusement at the surprised looks he got. "They have a stake in all this, too."

Eric studied Oz with renewed interest. It was an interesting point, one worth exploring. Before he could comment, however, his cell phone began to ring.

"Yes."

Buffy rolled her eyes at the way he answered the phone but said nothing, putting all her energy into eavesdropping instead. It didn't work, though. The volume of the cell phone was so low, all she could make out was that it was Pam on the other end. That, and she was speaking in a low and urgent voice, her usual dry amusement completely gone. That couldn't be good.

She watched as Eric listened for another minute, acknowledging what Pam said with no more than an occasional 'yes', and then hung up. She knew it was bad news, though. Big yay for the blood bond.

Eric hung up the phone. Fully aware that Buffy knew his state of mind, he didn't waste any time playing games. "Violet is gone," he stated bluntly. As expected, he felt a surge of emotion from the Slayer. She said nothing, however, and her face looked as though it were set in stone. Unfortunately, her friend wasn't as self-contained.

"Again?!" Xander blurted out. "We need to put some sort of tracking device on that girl!"

Sookie stared at Xander with wide eyes. Just because she was thinking the same thing, that didn't mean she would say it out loud as she was pretty sure it could be taken as a criticism of Eric and his management of his territory. And even from her limited experience, she knew that vampires didn't take too kindly to comments from the human peanut gallery.

To her surprise, however, Eric didn't even acknowledge this slight. Boy, he must've really wanted to stay on Buffy's good side. Murderous people who wanted to start a war aside, the Slayer's presence was definitely a good thing.

"She was abducted from Fangtasia," Eric continued, a trace of anger in his voice, though his expression remained neutral. "They left a note. 'We know you have him.'"

Buffy leapt to her feet and began to pace, well aware that she was just barely controlling the despair and rage welling up inside her. Add to that Eric's own anger, which was coming through loud and clear from the bond, and well, things didn't look too good for the local tree population.

"It's no coincidence they took Vi. And she would only let her guard down if it was someone she trusted," she bit out angrily, aiming her comment specifically at Xander before looking at Eric. "If they want to trade, they're going to move fast on this. Let's go."

Both Xander and Oz immediately got to their feet, ready to leave. A split second later, Sookie and a slightly more reluctant Bill also stood up.

Buffy raised a questioning eyebrow at the telepath.

"What?" Sookie said, just a little bit offended. "You said I couldn't stay here, right?"

Buffy had forgotten she had said that, and now her words were obviously coming back for some major ass biting.

Chagrined, she glared at Sookie, inadvertently venting some of her anger over the situation at the poor girl. "Yeah, but I meant you should take a vacation. Remember, me? The harbinger of doom?"

"Are you always this cheery?" Sookie retorted, the frustration plain in her voice even in the face of Buffy's displeasure. She didn't stick her tongue out like she wanted to, though, so points for her. Of course, it helped knowing that she might not get it back if she did. "Don't get me wrong. I don't want to come within a football field of this other slayer, but I'd rather not wait here for some nice guy to knock on my door and take me out while you all are in Shreveport, either."

"Sookie…" Bill said in a low voice, putting a placating hand on her arm.

She immediately pulled her arm away and rounded on him. "Don't you dare, Bill Compton," she warned.

Eric studied the pair. "Her telepathy could be useful. And she hasn't had the opportunity to tell us the rest of the dead man's thoughts," he blandly pointed out.

Bill gave Eric a venomous look. "And what? You'll protect her just as you did Violet?"

"It's more than you can offer her. What will you do during the day, Bill? Remember, the Council is human," Eric coldly reminded him. Then he gave a small, arrogant smirk. "Besides, with both the Slayer and myself there, I hardly think Sookie will be the focus."

The room vibrated with tension as the two vampires glared at each other. Buffy could feel all the non-vampiric eyes on her, waiting to see what she would do. She did nothing, however, stuck in a moment of indecision. As much as she hated to admit it, both Sookie and Eric had a point. Then again, so did Bill.

Seeing her hesitation, Xander made a sound of disbelief. "Buff, you're not seriously considering this," he protested. "Angel Junior is bringing up some very valid arguments here."

Angel Junior? If Buffy were in a different frame of mind, she would be smirking at Xander's observation. But now, when he was looking at her like that? So not happening. And so much for a happy reunion, huh? She felt herself getting angrier.

"I'm not 'considering' anything, Xander. Did you ever stop to think that Sookie's her own person?" she snapped.

She knew she was conveniently 'forgetting' that she had just been about to put the kibosh on Sookie's plans to go with them, but there were just too many similarities to the Potentials and her decisions that led them to their deaths.

This wasn't lost on Xander, either. He scowled at her for a long moment before he took a deep breath. "We've still got issues between us. I got that. You're too close to this – we both are," he ruefully admitted. "But there's a bigger picture here."

As Xander backed down, Buffy allowed herself to do the same, finally acknowledging that he had a point. "I know, but as much as it pains me to admit, Eric's right," she said quietly. "Kennedy would have to be stupid to try something with him, his vamps, and us around."

"Which she's not," Xander pointed out. "Which means there's probably more to this than we know."

"This does sound like a trap," Oz admitted.

"Doesn't it always?" she muttered under her breath. She abruptly swung her gaze toward Sookie and fixed her with an unyielding gaze. "So you know the deal. It's up to you. Though I would like to stress that I still think a nice long vacation somewhere sunny is your best bet."

Startled by the sudden attention, Sookie didn't know what to say at first. Up until that moment, she had been watching the entire exchange in complete fascination. Somehow, in the course of things, Buffy had gone from practically forbidding her from coming to becoming the champion of self-determination (and yes, she could thank her word of the day calendar for that one).

"I'm in," she said quickly, before Bill could interject – and before she could change her mind.

Like she had said before, she was involved whether she liked it or not. And she'd be damned if she was just going to lie down and wait.

Besides, fortune favored the brave, right? Well, now, no one said it couldn't take pity on the stupid every now and then.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 18: Once Bitten, Twice Shy

A/N: I am so, so sorry that this much time has passed between updates! RL has been crazy, and my burnout on all things Buffy has been worse. I'm slowly getting back on track, though, and I offer up this chapter as an apology. :)

Big, big thanks to my betas, deiticlast, murg, and satsuma and to kerrykhat for putting up with my neuroticism! And thank you so much for the reviews/love, and to ChloeBlack, DreamsHurt, emeraldsorceress, isugirl, Lala, lucidhallucinations, and SpruceGoose for the recs!

The ride back to Shreveport was a quiet one, which was more than fine with Buffy. She wasn't in the mood for talking, arguing, driving, or any combination of the three.

In fact, when Eric had held the passenger side door open for her – oh so subtly indicating that he would be the one behind the wheel this time – she simply slipped inside and fastened her seat belt, completely objection-free.

Seriously, she hadn't even thought a snarky comment. She had more important things to focus on.

And just like she had suspected, Eric was pretty happy to sit in silence, his mind obviously on other things, too. It was why she had decided to go with him and not with the others in their cars.

Even if Xander had looked at her as if she had suddenly sprouted horns.

As much as they had agreed that they didn't have time for their issues, it was hard not to be annoyed by this, and Buffy had to force herself not to overreact to this. After all, while teaming up with a vamp was hardly groundbreaking by this point, she had laid several Hellmouth-sized bombshells on him.

And now that Vi was vamp-napped? A few deep breaths were definitely in order, because Xander and Oz were right; this had 'trap' written all over it. The Council she knew and hated just wasn't in the habit of negotiating – or letting a vampire walk away – no matter what the cost.

Images of her girls flashed in her mind, and Buffy clenched her fists in anger.

Yep, things were about to get ugly, as in hideous, turn to stone kind of ugly, and all because the Council had a crippling case of tunnel vision.

Seriously, why poke the proverbial vegetarian bear with a stick until said bear snapped and drained everyone within a mile radius dry? Why not save the precious stick for those other demony bears instead? Or better yet, why not fight bear with bear?

Mixed metaphors aside, Buffy knew she was on to something.

There was obviously no love lost between these new vamps and hybrids, and she was so down with the whole 'enemy of my enemy' thing. On top of that, she was also pretty sure that Eric and vamps like him would take some drastic measures amongst their own to keep their place in the human world.

She could totally make that work – even if it did mean being around Eric on a more permanent basis. After all, she couldn't do any of this without vampy allies, and so far, he was the only one standing in line.

And no, she hadn't taken up permanent residence in the Land of Wishful Thinking. She knew that these vampires were not angels, even the mainstreamers. It was in their nature to kill – particularly her.

So yeah, allying with them might not work, and even if it did, she was thinking 'uneasy truce' at best, one where she might have to make compromises she might not be able to live with.

Still, she was starting to believe more and more that it was worth a shot, that she needed to shake up the slaying game, Buffy-style.

It wasn't like she did neat and tidy very well anyway. And really, did it get any messier and more complicated than her relationship with the vampire sitting next to her?

Buffy glanced over at Eric with a scowl. Fine. She could admit it. She needed him.

She just didn't know how she felt about that.

With a sound of frustration, she settled back into her seat and closed her eyes as she tried to regain her regain her focus, unaware of the way this drew a curious glance from Eric.

He, however, said nothing; he merely turned his attention back to the highway, eager to return to Fangtasia as quickly as possible. According to Pam, Chow was on the verge of tearing the bar apart, and in truth, he was feeling less than charitable at the moment.

That one of his own would be abducted right under his own roof was galling. Knowing that the retribution was limited was maddening.

Unfortunately, a group like the Council was well-organized and smart, and they would like nothing more than to provoke vampires into doing something rash, something that would discredit them in the eyes of the general public.

Yes, it had occurred to him that Violet's abduction was a ruse at the least, the first salvo of war at worst.

Frankly, he was surprised it had taken them this long.

But then, it seemed as though most of the Council's power relied on the slayer, didn't it? Perhaps they had simply been waiting, biding their time until now when they had their slayers in a row.

Well, almost.

As he steered the car off the main highway onto a side road he frequently took, Eric looked over at Buffy again.

She returned his gaze this time, eyebrow raised questioningly, having immediately noticed the change in direction.

Eric gave a faint smile. "Shortcut," he explained. At her skeptical look, his smile grew wider. "Nothing more, I promise."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "As if," she retorted as she relaxed back into her seat, her thoughts turning inward once again.

Eric smiled to himself. He could see why Dracula had been drawn to her. She was both life and death personified, and he found himself unable to look away.

Even if he had wanted to.

They continued to make their way back to Shreveport in silence, with nothing but the sound of the car's engine and the occasional rustle of wind to fill the space between them.

Buffy could see why Eric went this way – his Corvette was meant for isolated, windy roads like this one. The way they zipped around corners was both exhilarating and relaxing, and she felt a little lighter than when they started the trip.

For the first time ever, she totally got the whole boys and fast cars thing.

She leaned back, idly watching the scenery as it flew by.

That was probably why she didn't see the pipe in the road, the one with the spikes sticking out of it.

Eric saw it, though. Unfortunately, while his own reflexes had more than enough time to react appropriately, his car did not; for whoever had put it there knew what they were doing, having placed it on a blind curve so he would not see it until the very last moment.

Still, if that were the only issue, he could've easily handled it. However, their mystery attacker had also had enough foresight to place their little contraption in such a position that it only clipped one side of the car.

With a quiet curse, Eric gripped the wheel tightly. "Hold on," he said tersely.

Then there was a loud bang, and the car began swerving uncontrollably on the road.

Buffy, who had been caught completely off-guard, let out a yelp of surprise. Then she began grabbing at whatever she could as she sent a terrified glance over at Eric.

Why the heck wasn't he stomping on the brakes?

To her surprise – and absolute joy – he seemed remarkably calm. Seriously, how bad would it be if Mr. Cool, Calm, and Annoyingly Collected was freaking out? And was it her imagination, or was he somehow compensating for the spin so that they skidded across the pavement in an almost controlled way, slowing down little by little in the process?

Yep, for a split second, she actually thought they were going to be alright. Hence the incredible disappointment when she realized that she was wrong.

There just wasn't enough road, and what was there was way too windy.

The worst part was that there was nothing she could do except helplessly watch as her side of the car careened toward the trees.

Buffy braced herself for impact, for all the good it would do. Right before they hit, however, Eric muttered something under his breath. Then the car lurched and shuddered as it suddenly changed direction, spinning the other way and leading her away from the trees.

At the same time, Eric twisted in his seat, throwing as much as his huge, hulking body over her as possible in such a small space, using quite a bit of his strength to pin her head, shoulders, and torso to her seat so tightly that she could hardly breathe.

Her slayer instinct told her to fight back. Thankfully, her Buffy instinct knew what he was doing and told the slayer in her to shut the hell up.

There was another mind-scrambling lurch as they came to a stop with a sickening crunch of metal and glass.

But they weren't spinning anymore, and hey, she wasn't dead. Still, Buffy sat there for a moment, a little dazed and a lot sore, as she fought to get her bearings.

It was the tentative hand against her cheek that brought her rushing back to her senses.

Her eyes flew open, and her vision was immediately filled with big, blonde Viking as Eric hovered above her, with nothing but concern in those bright blue eyes of his.

She suddenly felt the urge to kick him. Hard. Because otherwise she would end up kissing him.

Sure, her leg hurt, and it felt like she was being crushed, but that was more likely from Eric and his kick ass impression of an airbag – which was probably the only reason she wasn't dead. That, and the fact that she was almost positive he purposely steered the car so his side was hit instead of hers.

She looked up at him and tried to smile back, but it came out more like a grimace. Embarrassed, she scrambled to think of something to say. Before she could, however, something else grabbed her attention – or more accurately, her slayer senses.

They weren't alone.

Eric gave a grim nod. "Werewolves," he said quietly. "At least half a dozen, coming down of the hill across the road."

Buffy bit her lip. In her experience, werewolves were just people who weren't in control of themselves three nights of the month, which meant they weren't evil and definitely not slayable. But tonight wasn't anywhere close to a full moon.

She had a feeling she was about to be unpleasantly surprised.

Buffy reached to undo her seatbelt. It had been damaged in the crash, however, and wouldn't release, so she finally just yanked it out. Then, after some finagling, she pulled her leg out from where it was trapped in the wreckage.

Eric, she noticed, hadn't moved an inch, though. In fact, he was still kind of leaning into her.

She looked over at him, ready to say something snarky about his personal space invading, hair smelling ways. The comment died in her throat, however, when she finally got her first good look at him.

The tree that had stopped their momentum had completely crushed his side of the car – and him with it. She couldn't see his legs in the heap of twisted metal, and to be totally honest, she wasn't sure if she wanted to.

Buffy looked up at him, completely speechless. While getting squished wasn't fatal for a vamp, it definitely wasn't much fun, either.

Almost frantically, she leaned over as far as she could and tried to pry away the metal, pull him out,something.

After a few enormous yanks, she managed to pull out the console between them so he at least had the room to move over to her side of the car. Then she began tugging at his legs, slowly extricating them from the mess.

Eric, however, knew it was useless, as the bones that weren't completely crushed were mostly certainly broken. He put his hand over hers to still her movements.

"There's too much damage," he explained.

Buffy blanched. "I don't suppose you'll heal in, oh say, one minute?" she asked hopefully.

Eric raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Blood," he said bluntly. "Your blood will allow me to heal rapidly."

Buffy stared at him incredulously. If she hadn't known better, she would've sworn he had planned this. As it was, she was totally taking back all the nice things she had been thinking about him just seconds ago. And still, he was looking at her, waiting for an answer, like it was even an option.

"Out of the question," she hissed.

Eric shrugged. "Then we will with both die," he said, lying back, looking almost relaxed.

Just then, they both heard what sounded like a whine, which was abruptly cut off. The werewolves were getting closer.

Buffy gritted her teeth as she quickly weighed her options. Could she really let a vampire drink from her? The only other time that had happened was when Angel had been poisoned. And now that she was reminded of that pleasant time…

"What's to say you won't lose control?" she asked suspiciously.

If the situation wasn't so serious, she would've laughed at how much Eric was offended by this. As it was, she could barely contain her frustration.

She really didn't have a choice, did she? Not with zero weapons and a bum leg against a pack of werewolves. She just hoped that it wouldn't come back and bite her – pun fully intended.

"Fine," she muttered. "But this is a one-time deal."

He nodded solemnly, the effect of which was immediately ruined by the slow smile that crept across his face as he reached for the back of her neck in order to pull her closer. While he certainly did plan this, he was not above making the most of the situation.

She immediately slapped his hand away. "Not a chance, buddy," she whispered hoarsely as she thrust her wrist out at him.

He raised an eyebrow but said nothing, just bared his fangs as he brought his mouth down to her arm.

Unable to look away, Buffy stared at him as she braced herself for the pain. Except that it never came.

Well, okay, there was a short burst of pain when he first bit down, but after that it felt…

No, she so was not going there.

Eric, for his part, knew in that instant that she had spoiled him for any other human. He took a moment to savor her blood rushed over his tongue. It tasted of power, of spice, of her.

Still, he was very careful to take just what he needed and not a single drop more, and when he was done, he licked his bites marks. Then he leaned back as far as he could and closed his eyes, completely satiated, as he absently ran his thumb over her wrist.

Buffy stared at him in shock. The seduction she was expecting. The gentleness? Not so much. Thankfully, she caught herself before he could see. "Well?" she asked impatiently.

Eric cracked one eye open, eyebrow raised in amusement. "It will take a few minutes. I trust that you can delay them?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Please," she scoffed. "I have bantering down to an art form."

She pulled herself out of the wreckage as quickly as she could, wincing when she put her weight on her injured leg. Apparently, it was worse than she had originally thought, possibly even fractured.

As if she had the luxury of being injured.

She let out a small sigh of relief when she spotted a random bar sticking out of the heap that was once Eric's car. It looked like it was a piece of the axle or something.

Ignoring the sound of protest from Eric, she yanked it out and stepped onto the road, immediately heading toward the noise so that she could head them off.

They came into view a few moments later, emerging from the other side of the road, about one hundred feet or so away.

And leading them all was Kennedy, with the Scythe in hand.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 19: All's Fair in Love and War

A/N: Big thanks to my betas, deiticlast, murg, and satsuma!

As Buffy watched Kennedy approach, she was filled with the sudden urge to bum rush the girl and rip herweapon out of those dirty, scythe-stealing hands. And of course Kennedy didn't help matters, smirking as she added a bit of swagger to her walk the instant she saw Buffy.

Yep, same old Kennedy. Well, aside from the crazy amount of silver draped around her neck – which Buffy was guessing wasn't just a misguided attempt at a fashion statement.

And, oh yeah, her complete and utter betrayal of slayers everywhere.

Buffy felt her anger rise. She was so ready to inflict some pain. Unfortunately, attacking Kennedy was pretty much the exact opposite of buying some time.

Not trusting herself to get any closer, Buffy came to an abrupt halt. Then she took a deep breath as she purposefully turned her attention toward the others.

She immediately realized that Eric had been wrong. In addition to Kennedy, there were six men and two women. They were all completely normal looking, but she could sense that they were all werewolves – extremely nervous ones, at that.

As much as she wanted to believe that her reputation was just that good, she highly doubted she was the cause of their fear. Seriously, even on her best days, she was constantly underestimated; it was her secret weapon.

And today, when she was all dirty and car accident-mussed in a sundress a few sizes too big? So not intimidating, and she knew it.

Nope, judging by the way their eyes kept flitting to the woods – clearly uneasy with the situation – it was Eric they were afraid of. It was actually kind of amusing, seeing the big, bad wolves not acting very big or bad.

Was it wrong of her to want Eric to jump out of the trees and shout 'Boo!'?

She bit back a laugh at this mental image, and she felt Eric respond with his own feelings of curious amusement, which only made her smile wider.

Yeah, yeah, they were totally having a moment. Too bad it was ruined a mere two seconds later by Miss Backstabbing Bitch herself.

"I was hoping you were in the car, too," Kennedy called out as she came to a stop, keeping about fifty feet between them. She looked Buffy up and down with a smirk. "Of course, I was also hoping you'd be maimed a little more."

Buffy gave a small snort of laughter. "Sorry to disappoint. Guess you'll just have to win this fight all on your own," she shrugged. Then she glanced over at the werewolves with a disdainful look on her face. "Or not."

Kennedy narrowed her eyes as she not too subtly brandished the Scythe. "I can handle you on my own," she promised.

"So Snoopy and company are here just for Eric? Wow, I haven't been giving him enough props," Buffy exclaimed in mock embarrassment.

Now it was Kennedy's turn to laugh. "We can't trick them all, can we? I don't think he would buy the whole 'we need to find Buffy because I was attacked by the big, bad Council' routine like Vi did."

Buffy's cool demeanor slipped at the mention of Vi. "She was your friend. They all were your friends," she said, her voice tight as she tried to maintain control.

To Buffy's surprise, Kennedy's face became hard and brittle, with real pain in her eyes, pain that she didn't even try to mask.

"And Willow was yours, but you sent her to her death for the greater good," Kennedy spat out. "None of this would've happened if you'd just done your job. You gave us no choice."

"'Us'? What are you, the Borg?" Buffy retorted.

"No, I'm the Slayer," Kennedy drawled as she twirled the Scythe around in her hand.

"Please," Buffy scoffed. "You have no idea what being a slayer means."

Kennedy rolled her eyes. "Spare me your motivational girl power speech. It wasn't that good the first time," she sneered.

Buffy clenched her hands into fists. She didn't know how much longer she could keep this up. It also didn't escape her notice that the werewolves were steadily inching toward her.

Talk about annoying. She hadn't even made a single pun yet. Clearly, she was losing her touch.

As she tried to think of something to say, something punny, she heard the faintest sounds of scraping metal behind her. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was about time.

Unfortunately, everyone else heard him, too.

Kennedy glanced over at the werewolves. "Get the vampire. Leave her to me," she ordered.

They growled in reply; a few even had the nerve to smirk at her. Gone was their nervousness – as was Buffy's last hope that this could be resolved over a tranq gun and some awkward nudity.

They knew exactly what they were doing, what they wanted, and they were going to go all wolfy on her to accomplish it.

Sure enough, she watched as their pupils began to dilate in a very creepy, very supernatural way. Two seconds later, they transformed into ginormous snarling wolves.

Stifling a sound of resignation, Buffy placed herself in such a position so that anyone who tried to pass her would be within striking range of her and her trusty bar.

As the weres cautiously stalked toward her, she made one last attempt to delay them, for although her leg didn't hurt that much, her ribs still ached with every movement.

"You do realize that the people you're working for have a mission to kill anything supernatural, including werewolves, right?" she pointed out.

They only snarled in response.

Buffy sighed and adjusted her grip on the bar as she braced herself for the impending fight. They might have been ordered to leave her alone, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to ignore them.

Of course, she'd have to catch them first.

She'd never seen werewolves move so quickly. It took every bit of her own considerable speed to swing the bar around like a baseball bat as the first werewolf tried to race past her.

On the bright side, she managed to make contact with the tan colored wolf, sending the one were crashing into another gray and white one. On the not so bright side, the blow barely seemed to register, as both weres shook it off like they would a flea bite. In fact, all it really seemed to do was piss them off.

The first were lunged for her, its teeth bared as it went for her throat. She saw it coming, though, and held the bar across her body so she could thrust the bar into the were's mouth, forcing the creature to bite down on it and more importantly, not on her.

Because winning the fight only to become a werewolf? So not happening.

As they fell to the ground, she used the momentum to throw the were off of her. Although her ribs were screaming in protest, she quickly rolled to her feet. She was vaguely aware that the other weres were rushing past her, but there was nothing she could do, for now the gray and white werewolf slammed into her, claws tearing into anything they could.

Buffy fell backward, taking the were with her, only just managing to dodge its gaping jaw. Fortunately, she still had the bar in her hands. As the were raised it head to bite her, she struck it across its throat.

Stunned and gasping for breath, it rolled off of her and slunk away out of striking distance.

"I said back off! She's mine!" Kennedy yelled angrily as she closed the gap between them.

Buffy could see the resentment glittering in the gold, wolfy eyes. And though neither werewolf continued to attack, they didn't go and join the others, either.

"Looks like someone needs to go back to obedience school, Kennedy," Buffy couldn't help but taunt, even though the last thing she wanted was to fight two wolves and a slayer.

Kennedy's eyes flashed as she circled around Buffy, looking very much like her furry flunkies as her lips curled into a snarl. Then, without saying a single word, she attacked, bringing the Scythe down in a wicked arc.

Buffy held her own weapon up on defense, though she had her doubts about its effectiveness against the Scythe.

Sure enough, the Scythe's blade bit into her bar and cleaved it in two. Buffy herself had to jump back to avoid one serious death blow, and even then the blade grazed her shoulder, effortlessly slicing through her bare skin before she managed to move away.

The wound burned with pain, adding itself to her other aches and pains. Even so, the thought of being killed with the Scythe of all things gave Buffy just the spark she needed.

Taking just a second to adjust her grip on the two pieces of steel in her hands, she then attacked with one purpose and one purpose only – to separate Kennedy from the Scythe.

Buffy made sure that she got in close so that it would difficult to effectively wield the Scythe. Then she delivered a series of short, sharp blows. While she was able to connect with Kennedy's arms and shoulder a few times, the brunette was too quick and dodged her more serious strikes.

Then Kennedy landed a left hook of her own. Buffy had seen it coming, though, and she moved in a way that absorbed most of the impact. Yet somehow, she still found herself flying through the air, crashing onto the road a good five feet from where she had been standing only seconds ago, her own weapons unwittingly knocked out of her hands as she slammed into the ground.

In that moment, Buffy knew.

Kennedy had always been one of the better slayers, fighting-wise. It also made sense that she would only get better with time. Still, something here wasn't right.

Just like the werewolves, she was too fast, too strong. And it finally clicked – even as Kennedy hefted the Scythe above her head to strike Buffy when she was vulnerable on the ground.

"You've been drinking vamp blood," Buffy accused.

Kennedy paused for a second to smirk. "Whatever it takes to win," she acknowledged with a grunt. Then she brought the Scythe down with blinding speed.

Buffy rolled out of the way as fast as she could, feeling the slight breeze as the blade whizzed by her ear and lodged itself into the asphalt.

With a loud curse, Kennedy automatically tugged on the handle, leaving herself momentarily vulnerable.

Never one to pass up an opportunity, Buffy scrambled to her feet and aimed a powerful sidekick at Kennedy's ribcage, sending the girl sailing through the air.

Then she raced toward the Scythe and pulled. She felt it move a little, so she went to try again.

Unfortunately, the two werewolves watching the whole scene unfold had different ideas, as they apparently took this as a cue to join in the fray. And just to make things really interesting, Kennedy was already up and charging toward her again, Scytheless but still very much dangerous.

Crap.

Knowing that the Scythe was her best bet, Buffy went to give it one more yank. Before she could, however, she heard this was a strange swooshing sound coming from behind her. She heard Kennedy swear as the brunette and the werewolves abruptly stopped their charge and threw themselves to the side.

Instinctively, Buffy ducked, just as a portion of Eric's car sailed over her head, crashing into the road in front of her and putting itself between her and Kennedy and the weres.

At first, she thought that Eric was trying to help her out, and she was both annoyed and thankful. Then she saw it. Underneath the heap, she saw black fur peeking out.

Buffy scowled. Show off.

Then, because the flying car danger seemed to be over, she turned right back to the task at hand and gave the Scythe one last tug. To her relief, it finally dislodged from the asphalt; just in time, too, as her two werewolves came bounding over the top of the scrap heap that was Eric's car at the very moment.

They moved around her, almost in a blur, swiping at her at random intervals. Or at least they tried to.

As the gray and white wolf clawed at her, she jabbed the pointy end of the Scythe toward it, spearing its paw. Though it gave a pitiful yelp, she could see its powerful muscles bunching as it prepared to attack again.

Before it could make a move, Buffy spun the Scythe in her hands and brought the blade down on the werewolf's neck.

She felt a flash of guilt, even though it had been pretty obvious from the first growl that this would be a fight to the finish. It disappeared, however, as she saw the tan wolf leaping for her, teeth and claws extended, a hungry look in its eyes.

Buffy jumped out of the way, letting the animal sail past her. As it turned around to attack again, she swung out with the Scythe. It managed to duck under it, though, and countered with another leap for her throat.

Without hesitation, Buffy jammed the pointed end of the Scythe in its midsection, aiming straight for the heart.

The weight of the dead werewolf almost tore the Scythe out of her hands. As it was, Buffy was jerked down as the were hit the ground, lifeless.

For a split second, she felt awful. It didn't help that both werewolves had transformed back to their human selves in death. But deep down she knew it was a kill or be killed kind of situation. And she still had a slayer to catch.

Buffy raced around the heap of car in search of Kennedy. She immediately spotted the silver chains that she had seen hanging around the brunette's neck; they were crushed, partially under the wreck and partially lying on the road. There was some blood there, too.

For a brief second, Buffy had visions of Kennedy underneath, a la the Wicked Witch of the East. Unfortunately, she was nowhere to be found.

Buffy did, however, hear the sound of growling, quickly followed by the sound of flesh tearing into flesh, over where she had last seen Eric.

Thinking that maybe Kennedy had decided to regroup over there, Buffy dashed over there as well.

To her bitter disappointment, there was no sign of her. At all. Which meant that Kennedy had actually run away.

Seriously? Who did that?

Before Buffy could get too worked up about the indignity of it all, though, she saw one of the werewolves leaping for Eric. From what she could tell, he didn't see it coming. Even if he did, he might not be able to do anything about it, as he was currently preoccupied fending off two others – the only ones still alive, by the looks of it.

"Oh no, I am so not giving him any more blood," she muttered under her breath. "Blood Bank Buffy is closed…forever."

Though she was loathe to part with it, even for just a second, Buffy hurled the Scythe toward the attacking werewolf, catching it right in the neck as the force of the blow slammed the werewolf against a tree. Thankfully, it seemed like these werewolves didn't need silver kill them – though admittedly beheadment was kind of tough to come back from, no matter what you were.

Eric took a moment to send a fangy grin of appreciation her way. Then he turned his attention back to the wolves at hand. By the time Buffy had retrieved the Scythe, Eric had taken care of them.

No one could ever say that he minded getting his hands dirty.

She walked over toward him, resolutely ignoring the fact that she had to step over body parts to get to him. What did she expect to happen when a vampire fought a pack of werewolves? Besides, it wasn't like she was looking too great herself—

Buffy gaped as she finally gave herself a good look over.

Blood. Everywhere. And a healthy amount of scratches, too.

She looked like a bad horror movie. And it was pretty safe to say that she owed Sookie a new dress; aside from being majorly blood splattered, the dress was about one broken thread away from a 'wardrobe malfunction'.

Eric came to stand next to her with a bemused expression on his face, knowing exactly what she was thinking. Her appearance hadn't escaped his notice, either – except that he thought she looked magnificent, standing in the faint glow of moonlight in her white dress, streaked with blood as she unconsciously cradled the weapon in her hands like it was something precious.

He was wise enough not to mention any of this, however. Instead, he simply pulled his own shirt over his head and offered it to her. To be sure, it had blood on it as well, but it didn't stand out as the shirt was black. More importantly, it would cover the majority of her wounds.

Buffy hesitated to take the shirt from him at first. Then she realized how ridiculous she was being.

She looked up at him to give him a small smile of thanks as she took the shirt. What she got was an eyeful of vampire chest.

Flustered, she looked away, though she did manage to squeak out a 'thank you'.

Grinning, Eric walked to the remnants of his car. He tore the metal off what remained of his trunk and pulled out some rags he had stored in there. As he began wiping the excess blood off of himself, he couldn't help but give his car a mournful look.

"You are costing me quite a bit in resources and well-being," he commented with a small sigh.

"Kinda makes you wonder if I'm worth the trouble, huh?" Buffy joked offhandedly as she pulled his shirt down over her.

"Not for a single moment."

His reply came so quickly, it almost made her do a double take.

She shifted uncomfortably. "Listen, we've got to clear a few things up here. About you and me… and last night… everything," she emphasized. "I know finding the slayer is like the ultimate Where's Waldo to you vamps, but—"

"No," he interrupted. "It's because the slayer is you." His gaze was unflinching, his tone matter-of-fact. There was no pretense or false flattery. It was simply the truth.

Buffy opened and closed her mouth, but no sound came out. She just didn't know how to respond to that. After a long pause, she decided not to. She needed to take stock of her injuries anyway, right?

And she really did, particularly her shoulder as it was throbbing at the moment.

Suddenly, Eric was at her side. "I could help with that," he offered mildly, though there was a small grin playing at the corners of his mouth.

Buffy narrowed her eyes and scowled. "Nice try, but I've got super healing on my own - which, by the way, you seem to be benefiting from in spades," she dryly noted.

Because really, despite the vampire versus werewolf throwdown that just took place, he looked, well, amazing. Rosy cheeks, skin glowing, the works. All he needed was a blood mustache to complete the look.

Blood. Buffy grimaced as part of her conversation with Kennedy came back to her. It was always about the blood, wasn't it?

She looked up at the hulking vampire. "I'm guessing they wanted your blood, though, right? Hence the whole elaborate car wreck?" she guessed. "But why yours specifically?"

Eric hesitated for a moment before replying. "The age and strength of the vampire affects the power of the blood," he finally acknowledged.

Buffy blanched as the implication sunk in. "What would the blood of a former Slayer-turned-vampire do?" she asked quietly. Her gaze inadvertently strayed down to the dead werewolves again. "We need to find Vi. If only dead werewolves could talk."

Eric looked at the wolves. Then he stepped closer to one, staring at it intently for a full minute before looking up at Buffy. "I recognize this one. He's from the Long Tooth Pack," he said thoughtfully. "The rest are unfamiliar, though."

"The Long Tooth Pack?" she asked curiously.

"The local werewolf pack. We need to get back to Fangtasia immediately and contact them. I think they would be very interested to learn of this new development," Eric said. Then he smirked. "And they can manage the clean up."

"Okay," Buffy said slowly. It made sense. They couldn't stay there, in the middle of nowhere, but they really couldn't just leave the dead bodies like this, either. Then she squinted down the road. "Are we close to Fangtasia?"

Eric's eyes gleamed. "In a manner of speaking," he began, his eyes flitting up toward the sky.

Buffy held up one hand to cut him off while using the other to pinch the bridge of her nose. She should've known.

Fangtasia was right around the corner – as the vampire flew anyway.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 20: Lines in the Sand

A/N: Thanks to my betas, deiticlast, murg, and satsuma! And thank you so much for your continued support/reviews, and to AnnManga, Jazzibear, Seoid, and vargamor, for the recs!

As Oz steered the rental car into Fangtasia's parking lot, Xander stared at the club in disgust.

"Look at this, the spectacle of it all," he groused as he gestured to the long line of people waiting to get in. "I know vampires are opportunistic, but even this should be beneath them."

Oz just made a non-committal sound as he reached for the door handle.

Though this wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement, Xander decided to take it as one and, being a firm believer that a good rant was a terrible thing to waste, he didn't stop there.

"I know, right? Isn't it enough that vamps take our blood? Must they take our hard earned money, too?" he scowled. "And now we get to watch Thor flash some fang at Buffy every chance he gets. I mean, come on, what is it with that girl and vampires?"

Releasing the handle, Oz turned around to face him, his eyebrow raised in amusement. "I don't think either of us can really throw stones there."

This took Xander completely by surprise, and he just gaped at Oz for a second before he found his voice again. "Well, I just can't accept them at face value like Buffy," he argued.

"Even Vi?" Oz asked with an extremely pointed look.

Xander shook his head in protest. "Vi's different," he insisted.

Oz studied him for a moment, taking a few moments to frame his response. "Listen," he finally said. "I know this a lot to take in—"

"And the winner of 'Understatement of the Year' is," Xander muttered sarcastically under his breath.

Though a ghost of a frown appeared on Oz's face, he continued speaking as if he hadn't just been interrupted. "But you gotta chill a little, for everyone's sake," he advised. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not totally comfortable, either. But until I can make sense of it all, then I gotta go with the trust. Or at least not with the unhelpful sarcasm."

Xander opened his mouth, disagreement clearly written all over his face. Before he could actually voice his opinion, however, some of what Oz was saying finally broke through that big wall of stubborn that was Xander's brain.

He forced himself to take a deep breath and slowly blew it out. "I know, I know," he admitted. "But to be honest? I'm kind of freaking about all this."

"Well, the situation is fairly freak-worthy," Oz pointed out reasonably. "But antagonizing the vampires might not be the best way to deal with it – or with your issues with Buffy, especially when she's just trying to make lemonade out of the pretty sizable lemons she's been handed."

Xander glared at him, but there was a grin lurking behind it. "You know, we can't have conversations like this if you're going to go and use logic against me," he jokingly warned. Then he grew serious again. "This doesn't mean I'm okay with this, though. Or that I agree with everything that Buffy's doing."

"Fair enough," Oz conceded. He reached for the door handle again, but he paused before pulling on it. "We cool?"

"Yeah, we're of the good," Xander confirmed. He paused as something dawned on him. "You know, I think that was the longest 'Oz' speech I've ever heard."

"What can I say? Sometimes I get downright chatty," Oz shrugged. Then he opened the door and got out.

Xander gave a small snort of laughter and got out of the car as well.

He studied Fangtasia for a moment. Then he took another deep breath. "Behold the new, zen-like Xander, friend to Slayer and temporarily silent critic of vampires," he announced.

Oz gave a faint smile. "It's a good look for you."

"There they are!" Sookie announced – unnecessarily – as she spotted Xander and Oz heading toward her and Bill.

Bill just nodded, watching Buffy's friends as they made their way over to where he and Sookie stood near the entrance to Fangtasia. As soon as they had caught up, he strode toward the front door, bypassing the long line to get in and causing more than a few dark comments to be thrown their way.

Slightly uncomfortable, Xander and Oz kept their eyes trained straight ahead, though Xander occasionally threw an apologetic look toward the angry mumbling.

Sookie couldn't even bring herself to do that. Not so much because cutting was just plain rude – which it was – but because a tiny part of her was actually enjoying it.

It wasn't like she ever got to do something like this - at least not before she started dating a vampire. And even if she did have a problem with it, she wasn't about to say anything.

In her opinion, there were two things a person got when they became a vampire: a set of fangs and a sense of entitlement.

And, boy, were both in full swing tonight.

"Pam," Bill said, curtly acknowledging the blonde vampire standing guard at the entrance door. "Take us to Eric."

Pam raised an eyebrow. "Pleasure to see you as well, Bill," she drawled, a bored look on her face. She perked up considerably, however, when she looked over his shoulder. "Why, Sookie, you look lovely enough to eat."

Ignoring the low growl that began emanating from Bill, Sookie smiled politely. "Hi Pam. It's good to see you, too. Could you please take us to see Eric and Buffy?" she asked. "We all came from my house and we're supposed to meet here."

A flicker of something flashed through Pam's eyes; it quickly disappeared, however, as she turned her gaze to Xander and Oz, giving the latter an especially careful once over.

"Am I to assume that these breathers are with you?"

"They're friends of Buffy's," Sookie said quickly, stepping in front of them protectively – which really made no sense, if she thought about it. It wasn't as if the Great Wall of Sookie would deter Pam from anything.

Thankfully, the blonde vampire looked more amused than anything.

Still, Pam didn't budge an inch. Instead they all just stood there as she pulled out her cell phone. Turning slightly away, she pressed a few buttons and brought it to her ear. After a minute or two, she hung up in obvious dissatisfaction as she turned back toward them.

"Why don't you come with me?" she suggested, even though the tone of her voice made it clear that this wasn't really a choice at all.

Then Pam stepped away from the front door and walked inside as another Fangtasia employee came out from within the club and took her spot.

Without another word, the four of them quickly followed her. Mostly. Because as they made there way through the crowd, Xander and Oz couldn't help stopping a few times as they got a good look around.

"Huh," Oz said as he took it all in.

Xander, on the other hand, just made some sort of gurgling sound, his eyes glued to what could only be described as a vampire go-go dancer. He continued to make incoherent noises, too, even as they walked through a door at the back of the main room into a hallway.

He abruptly snapped his mouth shut, however, when they walked into Eric's office, for there, in the middle of the room, was a vampire who was clearly not the Sheriff, looking at the humans with undisguised loathing.

"Chow," Pam said calmly. "We need to locate Eric."

The Asian vampire nodded and stalked out of the room as Pam's implications sunk in with the rest of them.

"They're not here yet?" Sookie asked worriedly. "But they left my house before us, and by the way Eric was tearing down the road, they should've been here a good 20 minutes ago—ow!"

She let out a small yelp as Bill gripped her hand a little too tightly. Confused, she turned to ask him what the hell was going on. The words got stuck in her throat, however, when she got a good look at him.

Seeing a vampire look like a deer in the headlights was just something Sookie could've done without, especially when Bambi's eyes were burning bright with hunger, looking as if he hadn't eaten in weeks – when she knew for a fact that he had eaten just last night.

A quick look revealed that Oz and Pam were acting similarly, which only made the situation seem that much worse.

Sookie glanced over at Xander questioningly, but he also had no idea what was going on. Before either of them could ask, Bill, Pam, and Oz up and left the room in unsettling, supernatural unison.

Now completely bewildered, Sookie and Xander exchanged another glance before following suit.

That's how they all came to witness Buffy and Eric, bursting into the hallway from Fangtasia's back entrance – Buffy clutching the Scythe and wearing nothing but what was obviously Eric's shirt, and Eric, standing just behind her, shirtless and smirking.

Both of them were streaked with blood. A lot of it. And to top it off, they were flushed, like they had just run a marathon – or something equally exerting.

There was a deafening silence as everyone stared at the two blondes, tension filling the hallway with each passing second.

Thankfully, it was broken by Xander of all people, as he began muttering under his breath – and in his head – the same words over and over again.

"Find a happy place, find a happy place…"

Shaken out of her own stupor, Sookie suddenly found herself unable to contain her curiosity. "What happened?" she blurted out.

Buffy shook her head with a scowl. "Not 'what'. 'Who'. We were ambushed by Kennedy and some werewolves," she explained, purposefully avoiding Oz's gaze as she spoke.

There was another pause as everyone seemed to focus in on the blood covering Buffy and Eric.

"You get to have all the fun," Pam finally said, her eyes firmly fixed on Buffy. At Eric's growl of warning, she rolled her eyes – and then immediately went back to gazing at the Slayer.

Frowning, Eric stepped forward so that he was standing next to Buffy, his large frame filling the small space. He didn't say a word, though; he simply stared at Pam and Bill.

Bill looked away, ashamed. Pam, however, simply gave him a knowing look.

Buffy's eyes widened as she looked back and forth between the vampires, the seriousness of the situation suddenly hitting her.

She should've thought about this beforehand, but between the exhilaration of flying and figuring out their next move, her mind had pretty much been elsewhere – not now, though. Now she was uncomfortably aware that she was wounded, covered in blood, in a vampire bar.

She looked up at Eric with a frown. He had to have realized this.

Sure enough, Eric smirked back. "There's a shower in my office, which I suggest you use rather quickly," he advised. "Otherwise, we might have a stampede on our hands, and seeing as I already need a new car, I would rather avoid any reparations that would most certainly be required if I staked one of my patrons."

At first, Buffy was a little confused. Reparations? Then she scowled as she focused on the part she did understand.

She was so not loving the idea of taking a shower there, but she didn't exactly have a better idea, either. And he knew it, too.

Grinning in victory, Eric gave a satisfied smile. "Pam, have one of the human staff bring an extra uniform for the Slayer," he ordered.

Pam nodded. "If everyone will follow me," she called out.

Bill and Sookie started to move immediately; they froze, however, Xander pointedly cleared his throat.

"Wait," he said hesitantly, his eyes glued to the bloody Scythe. "Kennedy. Uh, where is she?" Then he noticeably tensed, almost afraid to hear the answer.

Buffy's expression darkened at the mention of the traitor's name. "She actually ran away," she replied, her voice full of bitterness. A small smile crept across her face, however, as she glanced down at the Scythe. "It wasn't a total loss, though. I mean, I did get a shiny souvenir."

Pam let out a small laugh at this. Eyebrow raised, she looked directly at Eric. "She's really starting to grow on me," she declared. Then she turned and headed for the door that led back into Fangtasia's room, not even bothering to see if anyone was following her.

Buffy watched as everyone left, making sure to give Xander and Oz a reassuring nod when they looked back. As soon as the door had closed, she strode into Eric's office and headed straight for the bathroom.

She stopped in her tracks, however, as soon as she stepped inside.

She knew that some older vamps liked to hold on to the traditions of the past, often dressing and decorating in the styles that were popular in their human days.

Not Eric. The bathroom was modern and luxurious and Buffy had no shame in admitting that she was insanely jealous.

"Nice," she breathed as she took the beautifully tiled shower. When her gaze drifted over to the toilet, she looked over at him, her eyebrow raised questioningly.

Eric shrugged. "I have an appreciation for indoor plumbing," he explained.

Buffy felt herself start to smile. Because she was unwilling to give him anything, she turned away and continued to look around. She only stopped when Eric blocked her path with some towels in hand. And yep, they were just as soft as fluffy as they looked.

With a final smirk, Eric left the bathroom – and continued to walk until he was out the door, the one that led to the hallway.

"Where are you going? Don't you need to shower, too?" Buffy blurted out, completely taken by surprise, because honestly, it wasn't like he was any less covered in blood than she was.

Almost instantaneously, Eric reappeared in the doorway. "I'll be on the phone in the store room, as I have a certain packmaster to speak with," he replied with an amused smile. Then he looked at her thoughtfully. "Of course, if you are worried, we could always shower together—"

She could hear his faint chuckle as she practically slammed the door shut. Not trusting him for a second, she just stood there, waiting until she heard the door to his office close.

Satisfied, she set the Scythe next to the door. Then, after taking a moment to strip down, she stepped inside the shower.

It was a relief to feel the hot water sluice over her, washing away the blood, grime, and car debris the past few hours had brought, so much so that she just stood there with her eyes closed for a good five minutes.

When she finally opened her eyes, she looked around for some shampoo. Not too surprisingly, it was some fancy schmancy brand, one she couldn't even pronounce, let alone afford.

Buffy sighed. Again with the jealousy.

She began to clean herself up in earnest. As she reached for the conditioner, however, she saw the bite mark on her forearm and froze.

It was almost healed already, but that didn't make it any less painful to look at. And it definitely didn't do anything for the regret she was already feeling.

Never again, she silently vowed. It was just too dangerous.

Buffy quickly washed her hair before moving on to the rest of her. Unfortunately, she quickly remembered that the downside to using someone else's shower stuff was that you ended up smelling like them.

Yeah, this whole situation was abounding in weirdness.

Wrinkling her nose in distaste, she finished up and stepped out of the shower. As she wrapped the towel around her, she heard the office door open and close.

At first she thought it was the person bringing in a change of clothes for her. Then she felt it. There was a vampire out there.

Buffy's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Eric," she growled as she stalked toward the door and yanked it open. "Kennedy better be in the club, ripping people apart with her bare hands. Otherwise, I'll be doing some tearing of my—"

She gasped when she saw who was on the other side of the door.

Vi's sire. Chow. Holding out some clothes.

Well, if this wasn't the most awkward moment of the night.

"Uh, thanks," she said, giving him a small smile.

Chow, however, glared at her in return. "This is all your fault," he growled.

It was safe to say that she didn't see that one coming.

"I guess this can get more awkward, after all," Buffy muttered under her breath as she clutched the towel to herself a little more.

For some reason, this enraged Chow, his eyes flashing with anger as he dropped the clothes on the ground and stepped toward her, forcing her to take a step back into the bathroom.

Instinctively, she grabbed for the Scythe, which was still by the door, and held it between them threateningly.

The second she did it, she knew she had made a mistake. Seriously, she actually didn't think that he would do anything here, even though he was clearly far from harmless.

Nope, it was more because she was in an enclosed bathroom with an angry vampire – again. And she panicked.

They stared at each other in stony silence.

"I don't like you," Chow hissed.

"I'm not feeling too warm and fuzzy toward you at the moment, either," she shot back. She purposefully let her gaze flicker down to the Scythe. "Now you're going to get out so I can get dressed in peace. Whether you leave in pieces or not? Well, that's up to you."

Chow stared at her, the hatred burning in his eyes. "We answer to no one, he answers to no one, especially not a Slayer. It would be wise if you remembered that," he spat out. Then he slowly backed away and left.

When she was sure he was gone, Buffy took a few shaky breaths, her hands shaking as she put the Scythe back down.

Yep, she definitely didn't do too well with bathroom confrontations.

Eric hung up the phone. The Colonel had been none too pleased to receive a phone call from him and even less happy when the situation had been explained to him – but that was only because he knew that there would be a reckoning if his pack was involved.

Assuming that Buffy would still be in the shower, he took the time to take care of other business, matters that he had put aside since the arrival of a certain slayer.

Unfortunately, he also had to consider whether or not to close Fangtasia down for a few days, given the new threat.

He was deep in thought as he considered the feasibility of such a move when something just outside the door caught his attention.

"Skulking around for another smell?" he called out. "Does Sookie know?"

Bill came into the storeroom, a scowl on his face. "That's not why I'm here," he said tightly. "Though why you brought her here is beyond me."

"I didn't have much of a choice, did I?" Eric replied. "Though seeing her face when we arrived at my house would've been interesting–"

"We should tell the Queen about this," Bill interrupted, apparently short on patience.

Eyebrow ticking up, Eric smirked. "And we will," he promised. He paused for the briefest moment before continuing. "Just not yet."

Bill's eyes narrowed at this. "What are you waiting for? If the Slayer and her organization are mounting an attack, we must be prepared. Every second you keep this from her is another moment you put all of us deeper in danger."

Eric fell silent. Though he was loathe to admit it, Bill was right. He was playing a risky game here, one that put all their lives in jeopardy. Still, he couldn't bring himself to speak with Sophie-Anne about the situation, not yet. The Queen would take far too a great an interest in the Slayer. It also wouldn't reflect well on him that Violet was taken from his own club, especially since he had little to no information on what this Council's larger plan was.

He just needed a little more time. He just hoped it wasn't too much.

"I will not disturb her until I have something concrete to tell her," he finally said.

Bill stared at Eric in surprise. "You worry what she'll say about the Slayer," he guessed. A fascinated look came across his face. "You care for her."

"I care about what happens to her," Eric corrected.

Chuckling, Bill shook his head. "Has the great Eric Northman fallen so far?"

With a slight frown, Eric regarded Bill for a moment. Then his face relaxed as he gave a nonchalant shrug.

"Remember, Bill," he reminded. "If I go to the Queen, then chances are Sookie will learn about your true reason for seeking her out."

Bill stiffened at this remark; slowly, however, he nodded, as a silent acknowledgement passing between the two vampires.

Though unintentional, they had thrown their lot in together, and they would have to see it through that way.

Buffy fidgeted in her seat at the bar, distinctly uncomfortable, as she played with the straw in her drink, the Scythe at her feet, hidden in a duffle bag.

Seriously, they couldn't actually talk about anything, not in a public place like Fangtasia. That left them with only one option: sitting at the bar, pretending to be customers as they waited for the werewolf liaison of Eric's to show up.

And oh yeah, every now and then Chow would pass by, sending a baleful look her way whenever he could.

Stifling a sigh, Buffy glanced over to see how everyone else was doing.

Sookie was exhausted, having spent the entire time blocking out other people's thoughts. She and Bill had retreated to a quiet corner booth, though Bill still had the occasional groupie approach him for a photo.

Oz was leaning against the bar as he surveyed the crowd. He seemed relaxed, but both Buffy and Xander could sense a little underlying tension there.

And Xander was staring at two girls, who were currently fangirling all over Eric as they had their picture taken with him.

Xander shook his head. "Ah, remember when someone's first reaction would be to run away from a vamp?" he said wistfully. "Now those were the days."

Buffy rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. It almost felt like old times. She was about to reply when an uneasy growl suddenly began emanating from Oz.

"Werewolf," he said tersely, his eyes fixed on a man who was making a beeline for Eric.

Both Buffy and Xander followed his gaze, trying to get a good look at this new werewolf.

He was very attractive in that rugged all-American kind of way with longish dark hair and a few days' worth of scruff. He also looked completely out of place in Fangtasia, dressed super casual in a t-shirt, jeans, and work boots.

But all that was eclipsed – so to speak – by his height. Seriously, the guy was insanely tall; he even looked like he had an inch or so on Eric.

"First the Jolly Blonde Giant and now the Paul Bunyan of the werewolf world?" Xander grumbled. "Can I just say that we're going to need a chiropractor from looking up so much?"

Buffy and Oz ignored him, instead focusing on Eric as he dismissed the girls without a second thought; then he began ushering the man toward the door that led to his office. Before they went through the doorway, however, Eric turned and gestured over toward Buffy. The man looked over, his eyes flitting between Buffy and Oz before looking away.

Just then, Pam appeared by Buffy's side. "Eric would like to see you in his office," she announced. As Buffy, Oz, and Xander went to stand, Pam shook her head. "No, just Buffy. The Long Tooth Pack prefers not to speak of pack business in front of strangers."

Buffy winced. "Sorry."

Disgruntled, Xander sat back down with an 'oomph'. Oz, however, looked a little relieved.

With one last apologetic look, Buffy picked up the duffle bag and headed for Eric's office. As soon as she stepped inside the room, the man stood, warily assessing her even as he got to her feet.

Buffy set the bag down with a thud. Then she raised her eyebrow and stared back as she gave him her own look over.

"Buffy," Eric cut in. "This Alcide Herveaux, a member of the Long Tooth Pack."

Instead of extending his hand, Alcide merely nodded in acknowledgement. "Ma'am," he said politely.

Buffy bit back a frown. She so wasn't loving the 'ma'am' bit. And he wasn't exactly hitting high on the friendly scale, either.

Well, then, neither would she.

"So," she said briskly. "What's the what?"

This seemed to catch Alcide off guard completely, and he turned to Eric in slight alarm. Unfortunately, Eric decided it was more fun to sit back and watch the fireworks. He merely shrugged, forcing Alcide and Buffy to interact with each other.

Alcide turned back to Buffy, a frown on his face. "That wolf out there. He a friend of yours?" he asked.

His tone wasn't forceful, per se, but it definitely wasn't oozing innocent curiosity, either.

"Yes. A close friend. Like a brother, really," she said pointedly, making sure he got her message loud and clear.

And he did.

Alcide blinked at her for a moment, obviously warring with himself on how he should respond. Then he shook his head in reluctant apology. "I only meant that it's customary for wolves to introduce themselves when they enter someone else's territory," he explained.

Buffy studied him carefully. "I'll let him know."

Apparently, Eric decided that it was time for this oh so fun meet and greet to end, because he clapped his hands together authoritatively.

When he was sure he had both their attention, he turned to Alcide, a pleasant look on his face.

"So, Alcide, can you tell me why someone from your pack not only tried to ambush me tonight but also most likely aided in the abduction of one of my own?"


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 21: Another Day, Another Dollar

A/N: Thanks to my betas, deiticlast, murg, and Satsuma, and to kerrykhat, who's probably the only reason I'm still sane. :)

This was one battle Buffy couldn't win – had already lost, in fact. She knew this. Still, she couldn't quite bring herself to throw in the towel, wave the white flag, or anything else that required her to shake a piece of cloth in dramatic gesture of defeat. Not right away, anyway.

Nope, for a few long moments, she glared at her cell phone, willing it to stop ringing, especially since a quick glance at the clock showed her that they had only left Fangtasia less than four hours ago – not nearly enough sleep to function on, let alone rescue Vi and take down Kennedy and the Council.

It was just a bluff, though; both she and the phone knew it. Very few people had this number, and those that did wouldn't be calling without good reason.

So, with a sigh worthy of its very own Oscar, Buffy crawled toward the edge of her bed and reached for her phone, wincing in pain as the sun assaulted her eyes.

She was totally aware that she was being ridiculous. Melodramatic, even. Sleep deprivation had that effect, though.

Then she saw who was calling, and she bolted upright, completely awake and drama-free.

Alcide Herveaux. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Unenthused himself – not that she could really hold a grudge against him for that.

Seriously, having one of your pack attack the Sheriff was bad enough, especially since, after a few intense questions courtesy of Eric, it was pretty clear that Alcide and his pack weren't involved. But to have to explain all this and promise full cooperation in investigating the matter? In front of a complete stranger?

That wouldn't be anyone's idea of fun, and clearly Alcide was no exception.

It probably didn't help that neither she nor Eric had made with the Slayer explanation, either. But honestly? She had no clue how werewolves felt about slayers, which meant she wasn't going to say anything until she knew – even if it had made for one of the most awkward meet and greets ever.

And yet, despite his lack of enthusiasm for all things Buffy, Alcide was calling her now.

She quickly flipped her phone open and put it to her ear. She tried to say 'hello', but her voice was still scratchy with sleep. So not the way to make a second impression.

Clearing her throat, she tried again. "Hello!" she said, this time a little too forcefully as she overcompensated.

There was a pause. Then a slightly taken aback Alcide came on the line.

"Miss Summers, I—"

"Buffy," she promptly interrupted. "Call me Buffy."

There was another pause. Then Alcide gave a small cough. "Alright, Buffy," he began again, and this time she could hear the tension in his voice. "We got some of our people looking into the unknown wolves. I'm personally handling Jared— the wolf who attacked you – and I found some interesting stuff at his place that I thought you should know about."

"Great!" Buffy exclaimed. "What did you find out?"

"I'm not sure yet," he admitted. There was another awkward pause. "Northman asked that I notify you or him immediately when we discovered anything."

Apparently the sleep wasn't quite out of her brain yet, because it took Buffy a minute to understand what he was saying.

"Oh... OH!" she exclaimed, as she jumped out of bed and ran to the desk, grabbing the little pad of paper and pen lying on top of it.

"Where are you?" she asked. She quickly scribbled the address down. "Okay, I'll meet you there in... 15-20 minutes."

As soon as she hung up the phone, she began scrambling to get ready, throwing on the first tank top and pair of shorts she could find as her mind went into overdrive.

There was no time to grab something to eat, let alone take a shower. And what about Xander and Oz? Should they come? Alcide was already chafing at her being there. And then there was that whole territory issue with Oz...

No, she decided firmly. She would go it alone. Besides, she couldn't exactly walk down the street with the Scythe strapped to her back, right? And she definitely wasn't going to leave it in her room for housekeeping to find, either. So to Xander and Oz it went.

Buffy grabbed the bag with the Scythe and headed out the door. Thankfully, Xander and Oz were only a few rooms down. She still wasn't sure how Eric had swung it, getting them a room at 3 in the morning in the same motel she had been staying at before her night in Bon Temps, where all her stuff still was.

And for once, she wasn't going to question it.

Sookie walked up to the motel door; she couldn't quite bring herself to knock, however. Just because Buffy wasn't in her room, it didn't necessarily mean she was in here. Besides, it was still really early, and they were probably asleep.

Then she heard the sound of muffled voices behind the door, blowing her excuse to bits.

Sookie took a deep breath, silently berating herself. She was being silly. Bill was asleep for the day in one of Eric's 'guest' hidey holes – and yes, her mind went to all sorts of places with that one. That meant she was all by her lonesome, and, considering recent events, it was not the smartest thing to be.

With that thought, she knocked smartly on the door.

There was a thud, followed by what sounded like a grunt. Then the door opened.

Sookie had come to expect a lot of things since she began dating a vampire, but boy, she didn't see this coming.

For there, standing before her, was Xander, sweaty and breathing hard. Oz was in the background, looking slightly less winded, but flushed all the same.

"Oh!" she chirped brightly, trying to hide her mortification. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt... whatever it is you're doing! It's just that Buffy wasn't in her room..."

She trailed off and, not knowing where else to look, just stared at the ground. Hell, that giant hole could swallow her up whenever it was ready.

"What?" Xander asked, confused. Then his eyes widened almost comically as he caught her drift. "No! You think... No, no, NO. We were up anyway, thanks to Buffy, so we just thought it would be a good time to bone up on our hand to hand... and can we just pretend that that whole sentence didn't sound like one big dirty metaphor?"

A small laugh escaped from Sookie, though it came out more like a sob, as she was still swimming in her own embarrassment. Then her eyebrows shot up in surprise, discomfort completely forgotten, as Xander's words sunk in.

"Wait a minute, so you fight alongside Buffy?" she asked incredulously.

"Yep," Xander replied, a proud look on his face.

"How are you not dead yet?" she blurted out. She could've bit her tongue off when she realized how it sounded. It was only made worse when she could clearly see that it seemed to open up an old wound. "I mean, I just started dating Bill, and I've almost died twice."

Xander shrugged. "It's not hard. It just takes some skill, some instinct... and a lot of dumb luck," he revealed with a sheepish grin. It quickly turned into a frown, however, as he gave Sookie a critical once over. "So, you're hanging around vamps and you don't know any self-defense?"

Sookie opened her mouth to answer, but no words came out. Come to think of it, why hadn't she done something like this? She shook her head mutely.

Xander looked over his shoulder at Oz, who nodded. Then he turned back to Sookie. "Well, do you want to learn?" he asked.

She hadn't expected this. But she had to admit, it was an appealing offer. "Okay," she said with a tentative smile.

Xander was having none of it. He threw an arm around her shoulders and led her into the room.

"Come with me, Young Skywalker," he intoned. "You have much to learn in the way of the Scooby."

As Alcide pulled his truck over to the side of the street, Buffy leaned forward in the passenger seat, studying the house a few doors up. They had been sifting through Jared's papers when they found this address scribbled on a bank statement – right next to one of the many large deposits made within the past week.

Buffy had jumped at the chance to leave the dead werewolf's apartment. Aside from being an incredibly morbid experience, Alcide had barely said two words to her, and the silence was killing her. At the very least, she needed a change of scenery.

Of course, in hindsight, sitting in the cab of his truck with him really wasn't much of an improvement.

"Well, there are people in there," she said as she tried to peer into the windows. "I can't see who they are, though."

Alcide made a non-committal sound – the same non-committal sound he had been making all morning.

Buffy frowned, feeling her nerves begin to fray around the edges. Still, she tried to shake it off and concentrate on the task at hand.

"Can you sense any werewolves or vampires?" she asked. She herself was getting nothing, but she wanted to double check.

This time she got a grunt accompanied with a negative shake of the head.

Fed up, Buffy turned to look at him, visibly annoyed. "Look, did I kill your puppy or something?" she snapped. When she saw the way his expression darkened, she winced. "Okay, I'm sorry. Bad choice of words, but seriously. Can we at least try using actual words, maybe work our way up to full sentences?"

Alcide glanced at her, a chagrined look on his face. He didn't say anything, though, just continued to look at the house.

Buffy resisted the urge to bang her had against the dashboard. And yeah, she was kind of wishing she had a stack of mind-numbing financial statements to go through.

She still couldn't see what the heck was going on in the house, either.

Frustrated with the whole situation, Buffy threw her hands up. "Screw this," she muttered as she reached for the door handle. "I'm going to take a closer look."

This got a reaction.

"What? No!" Alcide objected, reaching over to stop her from leaving, his hand encircling her wrist.

He wasn't using enough force to hurt her, only stop her. Still, Buffy glared at the offending hand before pointedly removing it. Then she reached for the handle again.

Alcide growled, and this time, he grabbed her by both shoulders and forcibly turned her to face him. He then leaned over her, trying to intimidate her with his bulk, because even though was in no position to question her, he really didn't want trouble, either.

Of course, he didn't count on her giving it as good as she got. Sure enough, however, she scowled up at him, not backing down in the slightest.

This only made him madder.

"Do you want a war on your hands?" he asked angrily. "If anything happened to you, on my watch..."

Buffy felt some of her righteous anger deflate at this. She hadn't thought about that. Still, she was the Slayer. So what if he didn't know it?

"I can take care of myself," she declared evenly.

He raised his eyebrow. "Oh, really?" he asked as he gave her a scathing look up and down. He stopped, however, when he reached her eyes, which were in full Slayer mode. Releasing her abruptly, he sat back in his seat and took a deep breath.

"I didn't mean any offense," he said after an awkward silence. "But do you see my point?"

Life was so much simpler when she didn't have to worry about things like vampire-were relations.

Buffy slumped in her seat as she felt the rest of her anger leave her. "Yeah, yeah," she muttered under her breath. Then she looked over at him and made a face. "I still think we should get closer, though."

A bark of incredulous laughter escaped from him, but it was cut short when a car suddenly came zooming around the corner. It came a screeching stop right behind them, and a woman immediately jumped out.

Buffy could only stare at first. It was like looking at the girl the 80s forgot. Seriously, the woman looked like she should be following some hair band on tour. It was tragic and amusing all at the same time.

First there was the ripped jean shorts and shirt. Then there was the copious amounts of jewelry, which Buffy wasn't even going to try to understand. And of course, she couldn't overlook the teased, weirdly asymmetrical hair, which probably created its very own hole in the ozone in the styling process.

Most interesting, however, was the supernatural vibe she was giving. Well, that and 'supremely pissed'.

"Alcide Herveaux! You get your ass out of that piece of shit truck right now!"

Buffy looked at Alcide, eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Debbie. How the hell did she find me?" Alcide muttered under his breath, more to himself than anything else. At Buffy's look, he grimaced. "My girlfriend, sort of. It's complicated."

"Isn't it always," Buffy replied dryly.

A small, almost surprised, grin flashed across Alcide's face. It disappeared almost immediately, however, as he took a deep breath and got out of truck to meet Debbie, who by that time was already halfway toward his door.

Buffy sat in the cab of the truck and shamelessly watched the scene unfold. It wasn't often that she got to witness drama that wasn't hers. And this one was good.

Apparently, someone saw her and Alcide going into Jared's apartment and told Debbie. Debbie got there just as they were heading here, and so she followed them.

"Debbie, it's not what you think," Alcide said, his voice low and conciliatory. "This is pack business."

"Oh, really? Because she's not pack!" Debbie shrilly pointed out as she turned to glare at Buffy through the window. "I drive all the way over from Jackson to work things out, only to have you sneak out and meet up with this whore?"

Buffy bristled. Whore? Yeah, little Debbie better watch herself, or there was going to be a smackdown.

It was at that moment that Buffy saw something out of the corner of her eye. One of the curtains in the house moved, and a face peered out at them.

Alarmed, Buffy jumped out of the truck and made her way over to the quarreling couple.

"Alcide," she hissed as she tugged on his arm, purposefully ignoring the way Debbie's eyes lit with rage at this.

He just ignored her, though, so she tugged again, this time putting a bit of Slayer strength behind it.

That got his attention. Alcide looked at her, the question in his eyes. Then he saw it, too, and blanched.

Turning back to his angry girlfriend, Alcide reached out to Debbie, but she stepped back out of his reach.

He clenched his jaw and inhaled sharply. "Go," he ordered in a voice that left no room for argument. "I'll explain everything later."

Debbie glared, but after a second, she stormed back to her car, peeling away from the curb.

Alcide ran a frustrated hand over his face – just as the door to the house opened, and four men stepped out. They were all human, but they were heavily armed and heading straight for Buffy and Alcide.

And they had the Fellowship of the Sun emblazoned on their shirts.

"Get in," Alcide said tersely, ushering Buffy toward his truck.

But it was too late.

Another car suddenly appeared around the corner, and it came to a screeching halt right behind Alcide's truck where Debbie's car had just been. Three men stepped out, also armed and decked out in Fellowship attire.

Buffy fumed. Next chance she got, she was so sending Debbie back to her decade. Permanently. 


End file.
